The Principle of the Path: Chapter 3

The Great Disconnect. In your life what is it for you? What is the greatest void between your intentions and where you are? Where in your life are you dissatisfied, broken, hungry, confused? When we look back at our lives in these areas we can see where we go wrong right? Certainly if we can't see it in our lives we can see it in the lives of other's around us. This is where Stanley starts to let the rubber meet the road when, towards the end of the chapter, he says "We should break the habit of drawing a circle around individual decisions and events and dismissing them as isolated occurrences."

I know I easily will look at a single event and excuse it as something that is completely isolated. The sad truth is, that over time these "isolated" events compound and hopefully we realize that we're on a path. Stanley has a good point earlier in the chapter about being lost. It's that we're typically lost before we realize we're lost. We're on a road that is leading to an undesirable destination.

I don't really know what questions to ask of this chapter. I think the best exercise would be to look back at where you were a few years ago and ask yourself if where you are now is where you wanted to be. In some areas of our lives we'll be happy with where we are. Some areas we won't be. For me, I'm totally in love with my wife and I'm happy to say l love being married to her. She's amazing! On the flip side, my relationship with God could be better. I'd wanted to be a better guitar player by now. The list goes on.