Tuesday, September 3, 2019

A Brother Asks: Foreign Lands...




Brother: Can you explain something to me?
Coach: I’ll try. What is it?
Brother: I read the meme.
Coach: and?
Brother: Well, it doesn’t apply to me.
Coach: How so?
Brother: I don’t need to travel. I already know myself. I would like to travel to meet others in their environment.
Coach:  Okay.  Have you ever considered the inner traveling you undertook to get to know yourself so well?

Internal Activities
Brother: Yes. Lots of soul searching, meditation to clear the brain, talking with God, applying ritual in everyday life and how to respond in social gatherings.
Coach:  And you didn't need to travel at all to do any of this?
Brother: Not to any foreign country. I’ve been surrounded by people from many cultures and with those cultures part of their countries comes to me.
Coach:  I understand.  Can we take this in a different direction?
Brother: Sure.
Coach: Was your internal world known to you before you spelunked its hidden realms?
Brother: Yes, and I’m now free.

Disconnect
Coach:  How was your internal world known to you before you spelunked its hidden realms?
Brother: I’m not connecting with your question.  I need another clue please.
Coach: Sure. How did you come to know your internal world?
Brother: What was my motivation?
Coach: No. Did you have to explore your internal world in any way, or was it all explored for you since the beginning of your life?
Brother: I had to explore my internal self.
Coach: Was your internal world known to you prior to that exploration?
Brother: It wasn’t known to me until I left school and started in the work force.

Foreign to You
Coach: So, it was foreign to you before you explored?
Brother: Yes
Coach: So, when you traveled into that foreign land, did you find yourself?
Brother: Yes. It took many years… wait… now I’m seeing where you are coming from.
Coach: And?
Brother: The foreign land was my inner world!
Coach: Yes.
Brother: And I had to travel within it to find myself.
Coach: And?
Brother: That’s the foreign land to which the meme referred.
Coach: Yes!

Connection
Brother: That land was indeed foreign!
Coach: Agreed!  Thanks for letting me tag along my Brother.
Brother: Thank you for helping.
Coach: You’re most welcome.
Brother: I loved that new word, “spelunked”.
Coach: Thank you!  I believe it's appropriate.
Brother: Indeed!

Take Aways
Coach: So, I have a question for you?
Brother: Share away!
Coach: What are you getting out of the meme now?
Brother: That to find yourself, you must travel within.
Coach: And?
Brother: That inner land is no less foreign than any external foreign land to which I may sojourn.
Coach: And?
Brother: Finding my true self requires my traveling to that internal foreign land and exploring it as any other foreign land I may encounter.
Coach: Indeed!
Brother: Well?
Coach: Well what?
Brother: AND!!!  You forgot the “and?!”
Coach: Oops!  Sorry… And?

The Work
Brother: Neglecting this crucial Travel forever handicaps me with personal deficits that shall burden me wherever I Travel until I know my true self.
Coach: And?
Brother: I’m now seeing how important the Apprentice Work is.
Coach: How so?
Brother: It required me to spelunk my internal world as a foreigner until I find my true self.
Coach: Prep work?
Brother: Yes!  Doing it prepares me for what is to come.
Coach: Indeed!  And there is much Travel to come.
Brother: Indeed!  For all Traveling Men.

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