Embracing the Unknown: A Modern Pilgrimage

A junior monk sees an older monk walking and asks him where he is going.
“I’m on a pilgrimage,” the senior monk says.
“Where is the pilgrimage taking you?” the junior monk asks.
“I don’t know,” the elder answers.

This passage from “Build the Life You Want” resonated deeply with me. For the better part of the last 19 years, I’ve been on a path with very clearly defined rules and desired outcomes, where success was measured by business metrics.

It’s a game I played and can argue that I played fairly well. I’ve since taken a break from that game and have no idea what game I’m playing now, other than exploring different types of games.

It’s very unnerving at times. Questions arise like:

• What am I going to do now?
• What if I can’t find a different game?
• How am I going to make money?
• What if that was the only game I was good at?
• What if I need to go back to that game?
• What opportunities am I missing out on?

And on, and on, and on.

At the same time, it’s exciting not to have a specific plan, to have time to explore new things, to actually explore new things, to admit I don’t know, and more importantly, don’t need to know.

Am I a senior monk? Not by any stretch of the imagination. Do I need to be a monk to be on a pilgrimage? Absolutely not. Is it okay to take a breather and not know where I’m going? If it’s good enough for a monk, it’s good enough for me. So, yes.

Maybe not knowing is the best part.

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