The joy is in the unfolding, not the end result

I can remember training for a marathon many years ago. I had never been a runner in my life until I started my training. It was a 6 month journey towards the big day of the run. The day I finished the race I remember feeling really excited but underneath there was a sense of disappointment. I can remember thinking to myself that the training was much more enjoyable than the actual event.

I like to use this experience as a metaphor for how we seek for some future event to bring us joy, when joy is always found in being right where we are in our lives. We will go through many variations of my marathon story throughout our lives, and if we are lucky enough we will exhaust ourselves and look within. But the truth is that even the inner spiritual search for enlightenment inevitably becomes that same quest to get 'somewhere'.

The real gift is when we fail enough times at not getting what we want from whatever it is we think will make us happy and finally get that there is no where left to turn but here.

Here, where we no longer look for an end result, but are in love with the endless unfolding and deepening into love. Here, where only the heart is real. Here, where everything is included.  Here, where nothing is truly known. Where mystery is all there is and only wonder prevails.