Sometimes all the idols are just dead. And those moments are simply terrifying. I dedicate this to those who, like me right now, tromp off anyways, no map in hand, into the wilderness before us, where we hope to find within some unlit and unknown corner of those woods we stand just outside of now, some soft, moss-covered stone by some unseen brook where we can take a rest and enjoy the very wilderness around us which we were so justifiably timid to enter in the first place. Where we can take pleasure in our fears. Welcome to the woods.

Ah, the bloody woods. Those moments in life when our outstretched foot is cast into the shade by the body that lumbers eagerly over it, but which is suddenly met by another foot only at its side. Damn. Welcome to the woods. Ah, the moments of uncertainty and unknowable unknowns. The canopy that shades all the dark and secret passageways also houses the pathways to our dreams. If only there were idols! Roadmaps and torches and people who know the way! But sometimes they are lost themselves or gone…or dead.

Or they never did exist at all. And for those of us for whom there are no idols, we must find either solace with the field we now find ourselves in, or we must be brave and dare ourselves off into the bush.

And but what a simple task indeed! Ah, but not so simple. This one way, for each of us — for you and me! — is unique and uncharted, taken before by none. Quickly now, before we fall any further now: draw the other foot.

Welcome to the woods.

Dereck :: May.17.2008 :: Motivation :: 1 Comment »