The swallows are back. It always raises the heart when one sees them. They swoop with joy and energy. Whether they are the same ones as last year, which we are led to believe, or new ones, they let us know that warmer times are coming. However, they do more. They remind us of consistency and faithfulness because they seem to return year after year, and have some unseen sense of purpose and direction. We look up at them and marvel. They know how to get from someplace far away to here and are equipped with all they need to do that, having an interior map and courage. They challenge us. We too may be capable of setting out on a long journey, of flying to other countries, but interiorly we frequently lose our way and, more often than we would like to admit, we cannot even get off the ground. And when we do we are not as consistent as the swallows - we change our mind and our mood from week to week. Life is, in many ways, a long trek, and we all have times of difficulty communicating who we are or where we really need to go, or even where we come from. There are no maps, nor is there a fortune-teller which can give us the definite answers to the mysteries of life. And yet there are kilometres and kilometres ahead of us.
I think that most of us at times can feel lost. We work hard at finding the way. However, increasingly I see that a sense of direction can also come when we let go, and allow someone or something greater than ourselves find us. Finding and knowing our way may not be as important as being found, being truly known. We get our sense of being on the right way because of that. It gives us a sense of belonging, of home.
Being gentle with ourselves as ones who get lost is necessary, because sometimes this has to happen in order for us to realize what we were really looking for or realize where we most feel ourselves, most feel at home. We may not be like the swallows, unerringly finding the way year after year. We are a mix, we make mistakes but we recalculate. We deviate, but know when we are home.
As long as anyone believes that his ideal and purpose is outside him, that it is above the clouds, in the past or in the future, he will go outside himself and seek fulfillment where it cannot be found. He will look for solutions and answers at every point except where they can be found - in himself.
Erich Fromm
