Growing up in an immigrant family - who came to the U.S. with nothing but a few suitcases, $200 and speaking no English - I learned that hard work, struggle and discipline were honorable.  I studied and worked like crazy, even when I wasn’t enjoying it, firmly believing that with enough sweat and determination I can accomplish anything.  Whereas this did wonders for my worth ethic, by mid-20s I was completely depleted and burned out.  I had allowed my practicality and intellect to drown out voices of my heart and intuition.  After years of struggling to figure out what I’m supposed to do with my life, I serendipitously stumbled into my “calling” when someone mistook me for a coach at a party.  Just like that, easily and effortlessly, out of nowhere the answer appeared and my path was forever transformed - it became a path with a heart!

I wish I could say that in the past eight years I’ve consistently allowed ease and effortlessness to shape my life, but old habits are hard to break and sometimes I struggle (ahem) to keep the flow going.  Fortunately, it’s becoming increasingly easier to recognize when this happens and to shift back thanks to powerful reflection tools like The Path with a Heart (keep reading) and to the magical people who surround me (to meet them just come to any event I facilitate or host, especially the upcoming Visionary Retreat.)

THE PATH WITH A HEART

Anything is one of a million paths.  Therefore you must always keep in mind that a path is only a path; if you feel you should not follow it, you must not stay with it under any conditions.  To have such clarity you must lead a disciplined life.  Only then will you know that any path is only a path, and there is not affront, to oneself or others, in dropping it if that is what your heart tells you to do.  But your decision to keep on the path or to leave it must be free of fear or ambition.

I warn you.  Look at every path closely and deliberately.  Try it as many time as you think necessary.  Then ask yourself, and yourself alone, one question.  This question is one that only a very old man asks.  My benefactor told me about it once when I was young, and my blood was too vigorous for me to understand it.  Now I do understand it.

I will tell you what it is:  Does this path have a heart?

All paths are the same, they lead nowhere.  They are paths going through the bush, or into the bush.  In my own life I could say I have traversed long, long paths, but I am not anywhere.  My benefactor’s question has meaning now.  “Does this path have a heart?”  If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use.

Both paths lead nowhere; but one has a heart, the other doesn’t.  One makes for a joyful journey; as long as you follow it, you are one with it.  The other will make you curse your life.  One makes you strong; the other weakens you.

The trouble is nobody asks the question; and when a man finally realizes that he has taken a path without a heart, the path is ready to kill him.  At that point very few men can stop to deliberate and leave the path.

A path without a heart is never enjoyable.  You have to work hard even to take it.  On the other hand, a path with heart is easy; it does not make you work at liking it.

For my part there is only the traveling on paths that have heart, on any path that may have heart.  There I travel, and the only worthwhile challenge is to traverse its full length.

And there I travel looking, looking, breathlessly.

Don Juan
Apprentice To A Yaqui Sorcerer