Day 2: Preparing to Leave


“…I’ve come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call “The Physics of The Quest” – a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: “If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself…. then truth will not be withheld from you.  Or so I’ve come to believe.”
~ Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat Pray Love.

I watched the movie Eat, Pray Love a number of months ago and quite enjoyed it.  I remember being struck by the words above - “The Physics of the Quest” and put them in the back of my mind as I began to plan for this time of sabbath. 

I went searching for them this morning... thinking I’d be inspired by the words again - inspired to finish the route planning and start the packing list - and instead I am drawn to the last sentence “to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself... then the truth will not be withheld from you...”

I wonder, as I set out on the Sabbath Road, what are the difficult realities about myself that this time away might invite me to face (and forgive)?

The picture above was taken at dawn from our back door step looking east into a new day in the very early spring of 2010.

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