My Heart Is Already There

An old man was making a pilgrimage to a monastery deep inside the Himalayan Mountains. Bitterly cold winter winds, rain and snow lashed him at all hours of the day and night. One evening, having accepted the hospitality of woman who had seen the man trudging along the road, his host asked him, “How do you expect to reach your destination in this weather? At this time of year the weather will only get worse the further you journey along that road into the mountains.” The old man smiled, saying, “It is easy. You see, my heart has already arrived there. All I need do is to let the rest of me follow.”

I find myself in the midst of several daunting journeys - parenting and maintaining a good, stable, and healthy home, the job i'm doing and the job for which i am applying, the ambition of crafting a theory of trickster pedagogy, and more. This story fortifies me in these days of overwhelm and exhaustion.

The photograph is one i shot in 2006 in Calatañazor, Soria, Spain.