It feels like springtime on California's Central Coast, where I’ve set down my roots... lightly, like a tent staked in soft earth... for the next few weeks. I've been excited because the weather is pretty good for hiking. As I look up the Santa Ynez mountains, the trails are calling. But here's the thing, finding the right trailhead around here is really challenging me.

Stories, myths and wisdom writings talk a lot about the path and the journey, but no one talks about the trailhead. Often we're searching more for the starting point than the path. We feel the need for a place to launch our journey... a gateway that welcomes the uncertain wanderer.

I park my car today on yet another location that could be an entry point to the trailhead I'm looking for. There's no sign, but clearly a path. I walk a way and the path ends at a steep drop-off. Okay, that wasn't it... back to the car. But I realize it's more than okay. This short, errant trail took me to a stunning viewpoint where I saw all the way to the fog-blanketed ocean. It's a perspective I wouldn't have gotten anywhere else.

Life, and our journey through it... it's like that, isn't it. Sometimes we know in our bones the trail we want to walk and we're drawn to it like a holy pilgrim. Yet the trailhead, like the Holy Grail, eludes us.

But maybe the trailhead isn't necessary. Zen Buddhism talks of the gateless gate.

The great way has no gate;
it is like a path across a mountain,
before which there is no sign.
If you pass through this barrier,
you walk freely in the universe.

The trailhead to inner peace isn't marked by signs. It calls for a change in perspective to see the path has already welcomed us. We might experience what seem like different launching points over the years, but it's all the same path leading us to the same destination.

My motto today: don't sweat the trailhead.

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TO THE TRAILBLAZER: Breathe in the wild air. Forget the path. Let the branches point your direction, the stones show your next step, and the singing birds guide your heart.

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For the trail...

A walk that reveals itself as you go. The Appalachian Trail as spiritual catalyst. Books for a gentler path in 2025. Buen Camino on the trail that aligns with the Milky Way. A quiet pointer on the trail. Have you hiked today? Stay in wonder wherever you are, even McDonalds.

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SOMETHING TO GET MORE OF The numinous path People ask me all the time: what is my next step, where do I start? Many of us have an anxious need to know our way forward before we ever begin. We recognize them because we've been them: drifting, untethered and lost... not in a mythic way but in a way that leaves us ungrounded, fragmented. We want the right path because the world around us scares us. We need it to make us feel secure, like we're going in the right direction even as the world is falling apart. Disorientation. Uncertainty. These are doorways to the numinous path. Numinous means something drenched in the mystical presence of divinity. We don't find this trail. It finds us in the midst of chaos, when we feel most out of control. It doesn't show up because we plotted it. It appears when we let got of needing it. The numinous path has to be followed... without judgment. It demands something from you—your trust, your willingness to be led. It asks you to yield your intellect; not in the sense of abandoning wisdom, but in surrendering to something beyond it. Call it intuition. Call it faith. Call it the whispers of the divine. ​ INNER GOLD​ ​I resist the illusion of the perfect starting point, knowing this is simply my need for safety and structure in an inherently unpredictable world.

Before you go..

🛠️ Instead of fixing yourself, get out your toolbox​ 🍬 Affirmations turned into eye candy​ ⏸️ Don't we all wish this? 😌 Secrets of extremely chill people​ 🦊 Yes, you can find stillness in the wild​

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His step is light,
and as he lifts his foot to stride ahead
a star is left behind,
to point the way to those who follow him.
(ACIM, W-134.12:5)

© 2024 Susie Kher

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