At The Intersection of Blood and Guts
Alice: Would you tell me, please, which way I ought to go from here?
Cheshire Cat: That depends on where you want to get to.
Alice: I don’t care much where…
Cheshire Cat: Then it doesn’t matter which was you go.
Alice: …So long as I get get somewhere.
Cheshire Cat: Oh, you’re sure to do that, if you only walk long enough.
Sometimes the path you walk seems clearly defined, but then, something happens. It looks unfamiliar, and you realize you’ve lost your way.
Maybe you’ve encountered a rift in the earth. One tectonic plate sinks beneath another. It’s not the kind of ground breaking you had in mind.
Or the way might be flooded and you can’t get through. It’s not the image you had of yourself, rising up from the sea foam like Poseidon, or Aphrodite on the half shell.
Or maybe you are trapped, mesmerized by the reflection of your own image in the floodwater. It’s not what others meant by staying fluid. You might be like poor Echo, pining away watching someone else watch their reflection in the water.
Even simpler, maybe the compass rose has lost its petals and you realize you are traveling in the wrong direction.
Have you ever found yourself lost like this? Are you lost, right now, like this? Does it feel like the intersection of blood and guts? Which way do you go?
Go this way, and it’s the blood of the walking wounded, or the sacrificial lamb. Maybe that lost little lamb is you. Or maybe you will be the one to hurt someone else down the road. It’s the easier path to take. No apologies necessary. Losses cut. The escape route.
Or go that way, with guts – it’s taking the long, winding road. Perseverance. Compassion. All options and consequences considered. A harder path to walk.
None of it’s easy. Free will? It’s a bitch.
Maybe the journey takes us along all of the paths. The road is filled with seekers, navigating blood and guts. May the rose ride up to meet you, may the wind be at your back… We are Whitman wanderers walking towards a glowing inner light…
Water Over Fire 
This was beautiful. Thank you for sharing!
Hi Mark, thank you so much for coming by…hope all is well in sunny CA.
Oh yes, free will is hard. Especially when few (or none) of the paths we want to want walk, have outlets on the road we’re on. I’m trying to learn to fly.
Amen…Ah, the power to soar.
Hey Toni. Beautiful post. I’ve been reading chunks of a book by Thomas Moore called Dark Nights of the Soul, a deep and thoughtful book of which your writing here reminds me. In the book, he speaks eloquently of the enrichment and enlargement of being that can grow out of the lost and challenging times in life you speak of. Worth a read. Thank you for writing this.
Thanks, Sam. And thank you for reminding me about Thomas Moore…whom I read (yikes) maybe 15 years ago…time to go back and refresh. Moore also led me to one of his mentors, James Hillman. If you like reading Moore, and Jung, you will enjoy Hillman’s work. Thanks for stopping by. Take care!