The true authentic journey all of us face is to fully inhabit the body and soul of the person we are, to fill it as the air would expand the inside of a balloon. This is a journey of courage, imagination and the claiming of our own identity.
This is the only journey worth taking and it must be taken without anyone or anything outside of ourselves defining who we are. We must live in our true nature.
This work, this path, means meeting the place where we and the outside world convene and taking from it what we need and what rings true to us. This is not a selfish act, for it means that we can then realize and act from a fuller self and have more to give the world.
Everyone who lives undertakes this journey — this ongoing dialogue between your growing edge and the outer world — and it calls for keen attention and the willingness to face our fear. Some give in to the fear and turn from the path.
If you question this, look at the plant in your garden, continually growing and interacting with the outside world, taking in nourishment, weathering drought and cold and continuing to fill itself out, becoming what it was meant to be.
This process must take place where we are and with what we have. It is how we will make any meaning of our lives. This is about simple courage and perseverance and everything is at stake.
We are – like it or not –facing a severe test that will continually challenge us to be fully who we are. Love, leadership, family, work –all of this is dependent on how we live out this journey.

John Thomas Wood