Some people want to write a book but wait for inspiration for ten years. Someone wants to leave the job that exhausted them but tells themselves "wait a little longer". Someone wants to apologize to their parents, wants to hold hands with someone they love, wants to return to their hometown to visit the old house, but then hesitates again and again. We often think that we still have a lot of time, until one day we realize that the fastest thing to lose in the world is not money or youth, but an opportunity to start.
When you were young, you used to think that the journey of ten thousand miles was a great journey, going to faraway lands, conquering high mountain peaks, doing many things that others admire. But then going more than half a lifetime, you realize the longest journey takes place in your own inner self. That is the journey of learning to forgive others after a deep hurt. The journey goes from foolishness to tolerance, from pride to humility, from fear to calmness. There are paths from heart to understanding, but you have to go through youth to middle age to reach them.
You remember once sitting in the hospital, watching an old man learning to walk after a stroke. Every step of his was trembling, slow and painful. The whole distance was only a few meters, he had to struggle for nearly half an hour. For him, one step is the victory over despair, the affirmation that he still wants to live, wants to continue. Perhaps that's why Lao Tzu, when talking about the ten thousand-mile journey, emphasized the first step. Because the first step is always the most difficult step. It requires us to leave a safe place, give up the reasons for delay, accept clumsiness, failure and even the skeptical looks of others.
Human life is also a journey of ten thousand miles. You start with a cry of birth and end with absolute silence. Between these two points are countless steps. The first step to school, the step to leave family, the step to touch the door of love, the step to overcome loss, the step to learn how to be lonely and the step to learn how to accept yourself. At some age, you no longer ask yourself how far you have gone, but ask yourself whether you have really lived, or just stood on the starting line of dreams?
