Stop to catch your soul.
I’ve recently made my first trip alone, and it was one of the best things I’ve ever done. One of the things I noticed both arriving in India when I went there, and now coming back here is that it takes time for me to adjust, and land properly. I’ve heard this story in a couple of different forms, but never really related to it until now:
It is said that a man ventured into the inhospitable lands of Africa. Only his porters accompanied him. They each carried a machete in their hands and they made their way through the thick vegetation. Their aim was to keep going at any cost.
If a river appeared, they would cross it in the shortest time possible. If there was a hill, they quickened their pace so as not to waste a minute. But suddenly the porters stopped. The explorer was surprised. They had only been walking for a few hours. So he asked them: “Why have you stopped? Are you already tired after just a few hours walking?”
Then one of the porters looked at him and said: “No sir, we are not tired. It’s just that we have been moving very quickly so we have left our soul behind. Now we have to wait for it to catch up with us again.”
It took me about a full week to really land in India. Not because it was overwhelming or because of the clashes in culture I experienced. There was simply something missing within me as I’d finally landed.
And then I felt the same thing coming back. And I realised that this story might hold the answer to what I was feeling.
Transition happens to us in many different forms. Sometimes it’s a transit at an airport, a very physical one. Other times it’s an inner transition that isn’t showing as prominently. Nevertheless, they happen.
And I think that when we transition ourselves in the physical space, there are things happening within us that need attention as well. Not always, not for everyone. But sometimes for some people.
Please be attentive to that transition. You don’t have to believe in a soul to believe in the impact of the physical space on the internal, and vice versa.
