Returning to old stories
To live takes courage. Not the courage to do adventures. But the courage to ask profound questions about ourselves. The questions that invite us to explore new lands. Beyond where we used to live. It means breaking the habit chain and practicing or experiencing new forms, rhythms, locations, and mindsets. It’s like migration. Moving to new places. It has unknown opportunities and threats.
Sometimes, courage is about going back. To where we were. To the source. The origin. When you travel, walk the journey, and leave the lands you used to live in, it becomes hard to step back. It’s like reading old stories. The stories which you know where begins and where will end. You know all the ups and downs. You know the journey of characters. You know everything because you have lived it once. And it may be hard to live again the life once you have experienced it.
It happens with the books too. You have read that book. You think you got the message. You learned enough from it. It’s not necessary to go back and reread it. Someday by accident or choice, when you lay down on the couch, you just grab a book from the shelf, the one once you liked, and start to read.
You know you’ve read it before. As your eyes move through words and complete sentences, you more know that you were in this land before, and at the same time, it seems like a new land. Like somewhere you have never been there before. You have returned to an old story, but at the same time, it’s a new one.
This is exactly what happened to you. Things have changed. You have changed. You are not the person who read that book months or years before. Your understanding has become different. You have evolved. All these times, you thought that you got the message of that book. But when you return to it again, you realize you’re experiencing a new situation.
It takes courage to go back and question what we believe. It takes courage to un-learn. To get out of the knowing cage.
Sometimes, we think we don’t have the answer because we don’t know things.
But,
Sometimes the answer is hidden in the old stories. It takes courage to go back and discover again.