GREENSBORO – It has become rare to get lost while navigating unfamiliar places with GPS on our phones.
Early in my driving days I relied on maps and the kindness of strangers to keep me on course, but getting lost was my way to learn my way around. Getting lost helped me discover new neighborhoods and places, sometimes to great delight. Getting lost could be humbling. It forced me to become self-reliant on the one hand, while learning when to ask for help.
Getting lost can be scary. A friend went for a run in the woods in Maine, only to find that the blue trail markers she was following started to thin out just as the light was beginning to dim on an early summer evening. She became frightened when she realized she hadn’t seen a marker in quite a while just as it was starting to get chilly and truly dark. Thankfully she managed to find her way back to her car safely, but the experience stuck with her and gave her greater respect for the woods.
Just as the literal experience of getting lost becomes less common, it feels like collectively we are all feeling a little lost these days. Many of the bedrock ideals of democracy are being threatened; people are feeling anxious and worried about jobs and affordability; we are at war for reasons unclear at best; and life and liberty are no longer guaranteed for many.
Ironically, some of the skills we learn when we get literally lost might serve us well in these confusing and tumultuous days: Learning what tools we need to survive, figuring out how to navigate unfamiliar spaces, growing our willingness to ask for help and building the personal grit required to persevere in the face of uncertainty and fear.
A friend of my daughter’s who recently became ordained as a minister likes to say she has one message to share: “Another world is possible, and the only way to get there is collectively.”
I think about this often. No one person can save us; no one individual can lead us out of the current climate of fear and division.
Yet, If we can admit that we are lost, perhaps we can begin to build a new path together. It will require persistence, living with uncertainty and being willing to ask for help.
Let’s work to clear paths toward new destinations.
Reverend Sarah Lammert is the founder of Shared Vision Consulting in Vermont and works as the Federal Chaplaincies Endorser for the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Reverend Sarah Lammert
Reverend Sarah Lammert is the founder of Shared Vision Consulting in Vermont and works as the Federal Chaplaincies Endorser for the Unitarian Universalist Association.
