It’s Dark Just Now… Finding Our Way Home

Growing up in my home town of Karratha holds some special memories. One of these is as a late-teen walking home early in the morning hours (i.e. 1 or 2 A.M.) by aid only of memory—the street lights were turned out, probably as I recall, about midnight. Finding my way home was a challenge, but I generally had no problem making it.

A very different scenario I find myself in these days is in my work. I’m called an “advisor,” but in all reality it’s often the organisation I work for advising me on the broad plan they require for safety.

My role is discerning what the real needs are (through trial and error, questioning and feedback, primarily) and then finding strategies for facilitating, coaching, coordinating and advising at the levels of planning and implementation. It’s a different “home” we’re seeking; home’s about an end in mind—a particular outcome. Broadly it’s keeping everyone safe and healthy.

Finding our way home is a spiritual concept at its heart. Like a fuel-laden passenger jet inbound with a critical operational problem, in turbulence, sleet, mist and rain, banking and searching for the appropriate runway—we too are seeking our way.

Life is a journey to be mastered. It’s not until we find ourselves on the way home, spiritually, that all the dots connect up for us. For some, that journey envelopes the whole lifespan. Others find it more easily.

What is equal for all is this concept of finding our way home, spiritually in the first instance, and then literally when all is said and done; in the final analysis!

And to think of the tragedy for those who never find their way home, spiritually and (or certainly) literally… it hardly bears thought it’s so horrible… yet, that is life!

© S. J. Wickham, 2009.