Enjoy the Destination

Hang on. Is this title a typo? Aren’t we meant to enjoy the process? Isn’t it all about the journey and not the destination?

Well, as someone who loves to get lost in the messy middle stage of a project (even dragging them out to make them last longer), my question is:

What happens when we eventually reach the destination?

If you’ve been following along over the last year or so, you may know that I’ve been slowly chipping away at illustrating a tarot deck, and completed the final card this week.

This project wasn’t planned out at all. In fact, it only came about when a friend suggested using the cards as a kind of journal prompt. I thought I’d give it a go, and dusted off a deck that I’d bought as part of a Halloween costume (story for another day). The problem was, I had no idea what the cards meant! So I got to learning. 

But while reading about the cards I found myself drawing my interpretation of them instead of writing. The creation of the cards themselves became my journal - documenting my own personal transformation through the pandemic, a relationship breakup, and extended separation from my friends and family half a world away.

So as I put the finishing touches on the last card of this deeply personal deck, emotions were mixed. The excitement of completing this massive project was quickly overshadowed by sadness that the experience was over.

I mean, I guess I always knew that it would end one day. But what I found interesting was how quickly my brain tried to think about what would come next.

There was suddenly a void in my life that needed to be filled.

Something that I learned from the cards is that the ending of things creates space for new beginnings. But, staying true to the Snail spirit, I don’t want to rush into anything just for the sake of filling that space.

I think that when things shift in our lives it can shake up our perspective in unpredictable ways. And if we’re too quick to make decisions and move on to the next thing, we might miss the opportunity to learn from the experience.

While I hang out at this end-of-project destination, I’m attempting to approach the empty space with curiosity. I’m not sure what I’ll learn, but my intuition is telling me not to be afraid of this limbo land of uncertainty.

So I want to end this post with a call to spend time at your destinations when you arrive at them. Savour the view. And uncover the gifts that might only exist in the in-between.