A Journey Without a Map

“How can I become the adventurer instead of the timid mapmaker?”

our own Abigail Horgash

I met the now twenty-something Abigail Horgash when she was just a teenager. She attended a writers’ conference where I was teaching, dressed to the nines (she was, not I!) in heels and a suit and conducting herself with far more poise than most of the rest of us.

It didn’t take long, however, for me to see that beneath the beautiful professionalism was a young woman on the brink of authenticity. And scared to death.

In the years since then, I’ve been privileged to work with Abby as she has developed both as a writer and as a person. Now in a managerial position at a bank, she owns her own home and, with another Abigail, has created a series of podcasts you really don’t want to miss. (The Abbie & Abby Podcast)

Far more comfortable in her own skin than in those teen years, she allowed herself to be vulnerable at our recent Zoom party and answered my challenge to arrive at a question that defines the journey we’re each on. She did so with such gorgeous transparency, I felt that it bore repeating:

“How can I become the adventurer instead of the timid mapmaker?”

What does it mean to be a mapmaker?

In a follow-up conversation this week, Abigail explained.

“In my writer life, I’ve been planning, mapping my trajectory, but have never left the hallows of my doorstep. I’ve packed many backpacks, charted my course over and over again. Now I want to be more than the mapmaker. I want to link arms with fellow adventurers, head into the unknown and see what lays on the path beyond.

“So my symbol is a backpack and my journey a quest.”

Tossing the map …

We live in a society that is all ABOUT planning and organizing, setting goals and milestones and markers. That serves us well in many situations, as we’ve discussed.

It doesn’t serve us in the answering of a question, because it connotes that we know just exactly how we’re going to find that answer.

So how do we forget the map? Turn off the GPS? Resist the pull to become cartographers of our own lives?

Again, Abigail inspires with her approach:

“I have felt so encouraged by the blog and Facebook posts. It gives me a glimpse back into who I am and the people I’ve been made to be in community with.”

I’m not blowing my own horn here. This whole idea of a journey toward the answer to a pressing life question — and your response — has completely been a God-thing. Seriously, I’m the penultimate planner, sorter, filer and binder-maker! If I have a lot to do in a day, I list the tasks by the hour! Yeah, this is Spirit-led. No doubt.

That’s why I can say that staying connected with each other through this venue and Facebook and coming together quarterly for a Zoom Gathering and sharing what’s coming to us can give us the freedom to forego the map, the plan, the GPS.

Knowing there are others surrendering over and over (and over!) keeps us trusting the path. This doesn’t have to be a lonely journey. We’re not going into the wilderness or making a solo climb up a mountain.

We’re traveling together toward wholeness.

THIS WEEK’S QUESTION:    

Will you do as Abigail has and share with us:

• Your question (Well, duh – I just realized that the root word for question is quest.)
• The symbol for your journey – what it looks like in your mind
• The name you’ve given yours

I’ll go first:

• What is my purpose in this fourth and final quarter of my life? Not so much ‘what shall I do?’, but ‘who am I now?’
• My symbol is the labyrinth.
• And the name? (it has recently evolved) Surrendering To the Path To Fullness

Coming up:

Next week we’ll begin our month of looking at our quiddity – what is real and authentic and true and genuine in us. Stand by for pleasant surprises!