On being a traveler, a seeker, a troubadour

Listen! I will be honest with you,
I do not offer the old smooth prizes,
but offer rough new prizes,
These are the days that must happen to you:
You shall not heap up what is call’d riches,
You shall scatter with lavish hand all that you earn or achieve,
You but arrive at the city to which you were destin’d,
you hardly settle yourself to satisfaction before you are call’d by an irresistible call to depart,
You shall be treated to the ironical smiles and mockings of those who remain behind you,
What beckonings of love you receive you shall only answer with passionate kisses of parting,
You shall not allow the hold of those who spread their reach’d hands toward you.
-W.Whitman Song of the open Road v11

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I came across this passage this morning. And it has me pondering. Having been someone planted in one place for a long time, owner of homes, parent of children, traveler in business, but always returning to one place; Also world traveler but without focus more than learning, exposure, possibility.. And the question has been posing itself for sometime now: What now…

These are the days that must happen to you…

I think, but do not know, that what is next; that what must be done in order to serve the emerging consciousness and the life that is struggling to emerge from its toxic womb;
that it is going to require something of this nature and quality. Something about pressing into an entirely different paradigm.  A path that will run straight thru the center of my fears, my longings; fulfilled and otherwise, and then onto whatever it is that is sometimes called calling. I call it the center of my longing.

I think, but am not certain, that this poem is one of calling to live on the edge of ones calling, ones spirit. And if that is to be a traveler, a troubadour, then be that. And if to be part of this spot, this land, this community..then do that. Whether the travel is, inside or outside, or some mix of both, live on the edge of that calling.

Do not let questions that are too small, yet feel comfortable beguile from the knowing that is deeper in.  However comfortable.  However fearful.

The world, this emerging world, needs also travelers and troubadours to bring news from other worlds into other worlds. At the moment, that seems to be what I need to be preparing for. again.