The Desire Line

Image found on Pinterest and credited to wwwis.win.tue.nl

I’ve always been fascinated by them. How they look. How they’re created. Why they exist. But what I find even more fascinating than all that is what desire lines (like the one pictured above) might represent within our journeys of potential.

“Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

I love thinking in metaphors (or pictures). This desire line one is a personal favourite. I think we would’ve all experienced the magnetic pull and push of ‘do I or don’t I’ before. It can be in the smallest decision we have to make on a particular day. All the way to some life changing choice/s that are in front of us.

“We must take time to define our own path. Too quickly we can find the world defining it for us.” – Unknown

There’ll always be opinions. Both our own and others on the decisions that we make. Navigating the magnetic pull and push of our choices becomes exponentially more challenging if we haven’t taken the time to deepen connection to self, others and the world around us. And if we get bogged down in judgement. What’s real and most important for me? What impact or ripples am I striving to create? How might the video and audio most effectively align here?

“No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path.” – Buddha

It can be fun to play with the repelling forces of magnets for a while but it won’t ever lead to connection until we finally let go of our need to control the outcome. The magnet knows. Like we probably do as well. Deep down at least. But how open to our desire line will we be in each moment when a decision involving this magnetic pull and push pops up?

“I feel like this: Whatever is in your path and in your heart, you need to do.” – J. Cole