Walking are your footsteps
the road, and nothing else;
Walking, there is no road,
we make our road as we go.
As we go, we make our road,
and as we look back
see the road over which
we will never again go.
Walking, there is no road
only the wake as we go.
~ Antonio Machado (trad. by me)
Since the first time I heard the song Cantares, by Joan Manuel Serrat, which includes this wonderful poem, I have been in love with the image the poet paints with his words.
“Walking there is no road, we make our road as we go.”
Do you doubt for a minute the road you have traveled is a result of steps you have taken?
While we can’t decide where we begin life, we can determine where we end up; though obviously not exactly how. Though this for some reason seems to come as a surprise to many, we are the direct result of all we have done; and too, of what we have not.
It’s easy to criticize and see how things should be. Difficult is taking the steps necessary to get to where we want to go.
The place where you end up in life, doesn’t depend on your parents, the school you went to, your race, color, or even where you were born. There are people all over the world who have attained fabulous success without the presence of their parents, having gone to a good school, being of a particular race, color, or having been born in privileged place. Like the Phoenix, they have risen from the ashes to achieve much with little.
I’ll repeat:
You don’t decide where you are born, but you do determine where you end up.
The road traveled yesterday and the steps you took, brought you to where you are today. In this very same way, the steps you take today will take you to where you will ow. Instead of blaming your circumstances for your lot in life, instead, determine the steps which need to be taken today to pave the way to where you want to be. Take care with the steps you take today, because they determine your destiny tomorrow.
∞ Rob McBride ∞
LL IV 12