Taking the Long Way Home

“Lonely days turn to lonely nights,

you take a trip to the city lights,

Take the long way home,

take the long way home.”

~Supertramp, Take the Long Way Home, 1979.

We’ve all had times like this. A sort of spiritual vacuum occurs that is not destructive by definition, but it does leave us feeling, well, sort of... blah.

We knock around the house thinking about what to do but nothing comes to mind.

Ambivalence fills the air and we breathe in a mood of slightly resistant complacency. It does bother us but only in a way like a niggling, irritating itch would. It’s a mini-grief; it’s difficulty without the sadness.

Two Choices

We have two typical responses. We either run and hide from it, or we just sit with it and allow its time... hope suggests another time’s bound to break in and change the numbed spectre. The former looks for a casual external distraction—something superficial to break the monotony. The latter takes the long way home, content just with itself, not afraid of itself.

The difference between these two responses, however, is profound. The former way, which is our default—pick up a drink, smoke a cigarette, have some ‘comfort food,’ take a drug, have a bet, engage in retail therapy, watch television—misses out on something; something very alluring and powerful.

The latter is offered the opportunity at a strange sort of peace. As soon as we venture into the blahish experience and just sit there we’re at once introduced to ourselves—the real ‘us’ in that moment. This is cool if we dare into the boredom.

Take the Long Way Home

Taking the long way home is a chance to enter into dialogue with the self. We hardly ever do this because, funnily, we see the rest of the world as far more interesting and enthralling—but the fact is it’s a fabrication; it’s an escape in the wrong direction.

Taking the long way home is the chance to take the journey of a lifetime—a journey hidden to the vast masses—a place nestled in God, the Being that makes our being the greatest worth ever.

An Invitation – Holy and True

Could it be that that next moment of blahish discontinuity could be a ‘holy invite’ to our inner person—to come inside—and enjoy the Presence of God as we can personally experience him?

Could this be the secret we’ve missed all our lives? To look deeply into a mirror and smile and accept the nothingness for exactly what it is; that surely is our greatest opportunity to do that thing we’ve put off for so long.

Every now and then we ought to take the long way home. We never know ‘who’ we might find there!

© 2010 S. J. Wickham.