Nature is inherently cyclical. It is a conscious force that chases and consumes itself, it is the serpent that swallows its own tail in the process of infinity. All creation arrives with a destiny to be destroyed, just as all destruction takes place with a fate to be reborn. It is a rhythm of reality that has left human beings both broken and blissful for all of time.

If your journey often feels endless, like an inexhaustible open road so vast that it seems you may never reach your set destination… you are right. You can stop worrying that you are doing this whole thing wrong, because there is simply no other way to do it. The notion that life leads us down one singular street, to one distinct destination, for one particular purpose, is an illusion. It is an illusion that has motivated people for centuries and has certainly contributed to a whole lot of tangible success, yet it remains an illusion nonetheless.

The truth is that there are limitless destinations in one’s personal journey. Each soul devises a different earthly itinerary, a varied list of terrestrial terminals at which they hope to someday arrive. Ambition is one of the many fuels that separates the human being from all other creatures. To lead a life with goals and objectives is to lead a life of productivity, to sweat out the fruitful juices of aspiration ― yet there can never, and will never, be one sole station at which the soul is meant to stop. The only arrival is eternity, the only direction is forward. The only way out is through.

Once again, as per usual, this concept is entirely subject to perspective. If you have just achieved a goal of yours that you have been working tirelessly to accomplish, the open-ended road before you can be looked at through two lenses…

The first lens would offer a suggestion along the lines of:

“Ah, man! I just finally attained what I’ve been working so long to attain! Now all that’s ahead of me is even more things to get done, more work, more tasks to check off. When will it end?”

The second lens would offer a perspective more like:

“Wow. What a journey that just was. Let’s see if I can be content with and proud of my previous and present accomplishments, while embracing the unknown excitement that awaits me down the line. Let’s see what obstacles I can try to overcome this time.”  

When the reality of our universe dictates that there will always be more left to see, do, feel and experience, it leaves us without answers. Most people find a lack of certainty to be uncomfortable, as it leaves us vulnerable to both ends of the I-Am-Alive-On-Earth spectrum: the terror, the suffering, the despair, and the beauty, the love, the bliss. Why live your life dreading the scary stuff when you’re just as likely to experience the utter delight of this all?

With each door that you close, with each book that you gently shut and shelve, is another to be joyfully opened. Like the shedding python and the cocooned caterpillar, you are on the verge of a miraculous transformation.

The road ahead has no end. It is quite literally eternal… which pretty much guarantees that you will feel it all, the love and the pain. They cannot exist without each other, and therefore you cannot exist without them both.  

So embrace the infinity of all things, particularly of yourself. Make friends and shake hands with the sideways 8 that will forever be many steps ahead of you. Buckle in, or don’t ― this is your ride. Just try to enjoy it, and make sure you roll the windows down for the pretty stuff.