Reach into the depths of your soul and pull out the things you’ll need for the journey ahead: courage, patience, trust, fortitude, perseverance, love. These things are just as essential as the water and food you’ll be taking with you.
Does that sound odd? Well, consider this: how deep into the woods would you venture without courage and fortitude prodding you forward? How long would you keep walking if you didn’t have patience and perseverance keeping you to the route? If you didn’t have trust, would you even bother setting out on a journey in the first place? And absent love, would you find the will to keep going when all within you said: “Stop! I want to give up!”? For love, of course, is the great mover of feet.
These are not trivial elements – abstract virtues with no practical impact on your life. On the contrary, these virtues – or qualities of being, if you prefer – are eminently practical, if by “practical,” you mean that they have the ability to equip you to live fully and effectively in the world. You must always leave room for them when packing your bags.
But if you find you’re running a little low on one virtue or another mid-trip, don’t worry. Your traveling will obtain for you an increase of these virtues, and many more besides, simply because you’ll be moving forward, and in moving forward, you’ll be assenting to the work of every human being, which is to discover for himself the possibilities of the world and the capacities of his soul.
Time is of the essence, though. Pack your bags quickly, for it seems to me that the perfect time for your journey to begin – is now.