Not a Destination

As salaam alaikum,

To apparently quote Ralph Waldo Emerson, "Life is a journey, not a destination." And it's true. I've lived long enough to realize that for every milestone that you achieve, there's another to be broached...and another, and another, until death.

It's like the difference between the wave and particle theory of light, kind of, the way things are broken down. Or like, is life a staircase with a series of landings, just to discover that there are more stairs to climb? Or is life a path with hills and valleys and we actually aren't actively seeking the end of the path...

But it's hard not to have the end in mind, have a goal in mind.

I just realize that graduating from medical school is the beginning of much more than it is the end of. Similarly, when I marry, my world is going to explode with so many opportunities, including each one of my children, insha'Allah. The things I look forward to achieving, attaining, reaching...are the beginnings of journeys in themselves. I feel like a tree. My childhood was the root, my early adulthood my trunk, and now I'm branching out to so many realities. It's not getting any easier.

There are things that I want more than others, but as long as I am alive and human that will not be the end of my want. It will be replaced by other desires and needs.

There is no point of arrival. I'll continue to need guidance every day.

I do believe there is a final destination that those of us who follow monotheistic faiths use to shape our lives. But I feel like a lot of us live in jumps and jolts because we're living for milestones instead of a more smooth, organic approach, recognizing one state flows into the other...

Like waking into sleep sometimes.