I’ve nabbed this from a post I wrote some time ago now over on my photography blog, Roving Bess. This is a fitting place for it I think, and as such reflects my sentiments at the moment.
The core principle by which I live is that there is always a solution to every problem, always a way to overcome any challenge, and that achieving your dreams is just a thought away no matter how difficult a challenge it may seem. Sometimes lines are not straight, in fact more often than not they are not even visible, what makes them visible is your ability to project them in front of you, putting one foot in front of the other so to speak and allowing the impulse of movement, of intent, and emotional impetus to propel you forward upon a path that as if by magic unfolds before you. Sometimes the line you walk is only visible to you, and that maintaining your trajectory through life is something that only you can do. Being true to yourself; being true to myself in all that entails is what I hold as being most important to me, it is my guiding light through the thickest of fogs, and upon the most convoluted of paths, and motivates me to climb even the most forbidding of landscapes. As long as I have my goal focussed in my mind, then all the rest of me has to do is head in that direction. With love in my heart and a spring in my step my intent will always be positive in whatever I choose to do, in that I can be a guiding light for others too, illuminating their way too so that we can get through the fog together and reach our goal (of course the journey is everything, the end you seek is only just the beginning of something else).
I have walked thousands of miles in my life, and met thousands of people, I have arrived and departed places where I have left pieces of myself in exchange for treasured memories. But I have learned that life is a journey whose destination is in the living, within every moment of every breath. To walk the line and be true to oneself is an endeavour that is ever in the present moment, or string of moments. This I remind myself of daily, this is what keeps me true. This is the principle by which I live.
IshaiyaFreshlySqueezed 
Your image reminds me of a serrated knife…or the sharp bony protrusions on a dinosaur’s tail…still working out the symbolism. A solution to every problem…Occam’s Razor…is the knife’s edge serrated? I haven’t dived into the coffee yet this morning, but it feels like I have. Sometimes I suspect I (we all?) go insane every night, tapped into the stream of (un)(self)consciousness, and the groggy dawns are just a slithering back into restrictive skins.
Actually the shot was of the beginning of the South Downs way, an ancient chalk ridge that stretches 100 miles to the west, across the south of England. It evokes for me the hard reality of physically putting one foot in front of the other, mile after mile. So for me it is symbolic of the journey of life, the open path before you with its steady incline. But I like your analogy too, fitting considering that these chalky cliffs are probably full of dinosaur tails.
You also make a good point that personal perception is tailored by expectation: is the knife serrated? Maybe, maybe not. What is it you are expecting to see and experience before you?
If slipping back into the stream of consciousness is insanity, then I’ll take two. I’ve caught myself a few times over the years, wherein I begin to feel the restriction of waking consciousness as I pass from dreaming awareness to wakefulness. It always strikes me how restrictive it actually feels, to the point that if you don’t grasp those dreamy coattails, then your apt to very quickly forget your experiences as your dreaming self. Most annoying.
Perhaps the morning coffee lessens the restrictions a tad?
Love the shot and what you wrote. That’s all we can do, really. Point ourselves like knives in the way we must go, and then trust the journey.
It is slowly dawning on me – I am a notorious ”Johnny come lately” how so much ( maybe all) that happens does so for a reason. No, I not believe this has any spiritual connotations but rather an innate survival trait that modifies itself / kicks in as we move along.
Fir example: I’ve been having a couple of issues ( with my publisher) over my new book and I instituted a forced ”Time out”.
I needed head-space and so sat down and reread another manuscript I’d finished just as a distraction and discovered a plot flaw that would have gone completely unnoticed as I had believed the book was done and dusted.
And there are b’zillions of things like this from the tiny insignificant ones to the humongous, life-altering ones, like should I have Bran or Weetabix for breakfast?
Such is the philosophy of life! 🙂
Here endeth the sermon of Ark. lol…
I wonder what the typos signify? Sigh!
In my book typos usually signify it’s time for a coffee and a snack.
I keep saying to people that none of this is esoteric. I, like you, can only go on first hand experience of such things. For me they happen with enough frequency that I no longer believe in coincidence or chance. Maybe it is a survival trait, and an effective one if you ask me.