I am so tired. I want to lay down in the middle of a green forest and sleep in a big fluffy bed with a thick comforter and … nothing or no one else. Away from everything… everyone… silent, blissful. It would be Heaven.

So, I had this discussion with someone today. I have talents in a few areas and am fairly strong in all of them. Cooking. Computer Support. Web stuff… and other things. I have a mixed bag of passions: cooking, traveling, art, design, and sex. Is there a way to combine my skills into something I can be happy with and do with a clear conscious?

The discussion was really about having a path in life and how being skilled in a variety of genre is not really so good for the individual because it makes career paths and long term goals blur and get sketchy. When I was in high school and going forward I was going to be a model, I was going to be a famous fiction writer, I was going to be rich beyond all my dreams. When I got out of the military in 1989 I was going to still be a writer because I had no real skills I could bargain with in spite of my 6 years in the Air Force.

When I got out and started in the direction of Technology, I went to ITT for a while and was going to be a writer and tech guru at the same time. But, I was also going to be rich beyond my dreams and have to worry about nothing when I got older.

By then I had really started fucking up my credit and was getting no where special. I moved to Boston and started on a strong technical road as a support person and a technical trainer… which I brought back to L.A. with me through 2001.

The world blew up and I was looking for direction when I decided to explore one of my passions and I became a Chef. As my Chefy skills grew I longed for the Technical stuff and did that on the side along the way until in 2005 I changed teams and was back in IT again.

Well, IT has changed and in spite of my skills there are a lot of younger moppets thinking they know everything and I am left saying…”there for the grace of God go I”… funny, huh?

What now? Remaining introspective I find myself usually following my own tail in a never ending circle. The path of life has left me into a thick forest and I need to climb up to a higher path where trees are younger and not as souped together.

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Sound goofy? I believe in something called the “Path of Life” and it is this literal interpretation of life I think most people can relate to this metaphor because it makes sense. Imagine life as a path through a moutainside pathway. Sometimes you’re faced with a cross in the path, a split path, or even a blocked path. All of ideals directly relate to life. You have to make the right choices that will determine the rest of your journey… or you must deal with the obstacle that is in the way before you can go forward.

Imagine having a block in the path? You have to spend time removing the dead tree from the path. That dead tree could represent a bad person in your life. It could represent that bounced check you have to pay off… anything.

Walking through a briar patch could be part of your journey.. which means you walk a hard path but you will get through it.. even with some scratches. But, you will be stronger in the end.

If you make your way along the wrong path you can never go back. Going backward is out of the question, you might as well try going back in time. What’s done is done.

You should not look back along the road you came from because you’re not moving forward.

Sometimes you can collect things along the way. Some things make the journey lighter, some make it heavier. The idea is to know what to dump along the way and what to keep. You will know quickly if you dumped the wrong thing… but you can’t go back again… it’s never the same or someone else has it now.

If the weather is bad it will pass, but it could make the road harder to travel. That too will pass. Wet weather could mean marriage troubles and the divorce or reconciliation that follows will be hard but there is always resolution if you face it. Refusing to face will only set you into the briar patch or even worse become a mountain of stones in your path… either way the journey really slows down… but time stands still for no one.

I have never experienced some of the literal predators in the journey… so much anyway. But they are out there. Imagine predators as people who would intersect with your journey and hold you back; an abusive lover or parent? Maybe something more frightening like a rape or death that retards your functions and holds you back? A robbery? A deceptive person who abused your trust?

All of these examples in the above could turn your path involuntarily or unwittingly driving you off your journey! How do you recover from that? Some people use a therapist and find a guardian for the travel … held strong with a good companion.

Since all of us are different and have various levels of endurance, patience, and fortitude the path is as individual as us. Yet, the barriers are the same… some bigger than others. For me, my perception is that the biggest weakness in the journey is the curious preoccupation with the person on the next path over. It’s either “the grass is always greener” competition or the moral indignation for issues that do not impact YOU or are none of YOUR personal business (some examples are but not limited to like Gay and Lesbian Issues… Transgender… Spoiled Children… Raising Children… Smoking Pot… whatever… ).

For each of us, our journey is to get from Point A to Point B… Birth to Death… without hurting anyone along the way. Having learned as much as possible because Point B is not the end, but a new beginning.

The greatest sin imposed on another person on their journey is to be a predator, to be indignant, to be stone in the road… people all have to explore life as much as possible.