Had a recent conversation about journeys and, in particular, the anticipated endings. Honestly struggled to have an answer for "When do you know you're reaching the end and you're kinda done?". On one hand, I felt like I should know but it’s only a vague idea. On the other hand, it also felt quite uneasy entertaining the thought of letting some anticipated ending influence the journey.
When I say I have an idea what the signal looks like when the ending is near, that signal exists only as a marker. It's still very much up to me whether I treated that marker as the point to drop everything, or the point where I adjust the course I'm on and run harder on it.
People sound clever (at least to me) when they are confident that they know when to cut a journey off when it's going nowhere. Sometimes I think that only fulfils itself as a convincing story we piece together after the fact. While we're on the journey itself, all we have are a few markers and a bunch of messy decisions.
So I think I'm on a journey without an ending, but it’s not a journey without guiderails. As I continue moving along, if I manage to learn fast enough, I'll put in smarter guiderails over time. I suspect I'll like where I end up and enjoy the journey at the same time. Just like this “spirit forward” cocktail that the bartender recommended. :)
