This is not an experience for kids. It’s for adults. Particularly those of us lucky enough to have survived the first part of life. For much of human history—and still in most of the world today—people of our age were usually dead.
But today’s increasing life expectancy gives us more adult years in the second portion of life than in the first. Extra time to wonder where the devil the first chunk went. Many of us will sense a growing discontentment giving shape from within. We have a happiness meter inside that—for some inexplicable reason—now reacts differently to life. What brought us joy in the first chapter of life doesn’t quite do it for us as we grow older.
From childhood, the institutions of life mediate access to the “guilty” pleasures that reside dormant within. The longings that give voice to our deepest desires can be disruptive. Therefore the first-life establishment represses and censors them. Family friction, school cloning, social expectations, and religious rules dictate the essentials of our life. Do this, don’t do that, can’t you read the signs?
A life that constricts our hunger wounds the soul. Soul is the word we use to describe our deepest longings from the earliest moments of child-like reflection to the present day. As we get older it dawns on us that we cannot live off everyone else’s joy and still be true to who we really are. When we live without expressing our inner yearnings, we suffer the greatest illness of all. We sacrifice our soul on the altar of self-denial.
Ask yourself: Are you really enjoying your life? Or are you relegated to living vicariously through your friends? Are you denying yourself because your spouse, your career, your children, or your church are demanding their joy replace yours?
This natural longing for enjoyment disrupts the first-life needs for selflessness, comfort, and predictability. It is a deep upheaval of the inner being that has meaning, healing, and wholeness as its motive. We sense an unrelenting call to a new adventure—the quest to find freedom and happiness in our everyday life. To embark on a journey to find our holy grail—to finally live out our deepest desires.
The treasure is you. You are searching for who you are. And now, in the second half of life, there is finally time to embark upon this noble Quest. It is not a journey for the faint of heart. There are risks. Most of us lack permission to lead our own lives. There is the possibility that those with whom you live, work, and play have become so dependent on you that they may be offended when you begin the search for happiness.
They will call you selfish—or worse. Often the adventure of mid-life is confused with self-indulgence or crisis, but a true Quest requires surrender to our soul’s purpose. This is quite the opposite of selfishness; true discovery of the Self is a noble cause. Indeed, it is quite possibly the most selfless adventure of one’s life.
The Quest summons the soul and calls for a more attentive relationship to our journey. The quest for self-awareness is much the same as the achievement of enlightenment, or service to the will of God. World religions once championed this search before many of them fell into dogmatic forms and institutional control that crucified the enjoyment of the individual soul.
As Jesus said in the Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.”
This is the essence of the Quest. After a first-half of life filled with service and selflessness to our family, society, and religion, in this second half of life, we are now summoned to an adventure to seek the holy grail. The Quest for the treasure that is our true self. To be fully alive.
It may be necessary at times to retreat from the world to reflect, regroup, or revision our journey, but ultimately, we are to bring the holy grail—the bliss of our true self—back to the world. A true Quest should eventually lead us to a more enjoyable and fulfilling community and not to loneliness and isolation.
This experience will help you discover a path as old as time—familiar desires that still resonate deep within—from our earliest moments of child-like reflection. It will help remember the fullness of life we’ve forgotten during the frenetic pace and restrictions of the first half of life.
It is designed to help you draw a personal and unique map to the holy grail. You will explore the dusty and undiscovered roadways to the things that bring your soul, body, spirit and mind sheer joy. And a map to the unique and eye-opening layers of who you truly are.
The Quest always begins with a summons. A guide must come to say, “Look, you’re asleep. Wake up! Come on an adventure. There are myriad aspects of your desires and your being that are waiting to be discovered.”
And so it begins. Is your heart beating a bit faster? Do these words sound familiar? Do you have the courage to turn the page? To repeat, this is not an experience for kids. It’s for adults who want to enjoy growing older—who want to squeeze every ounce of enjoyment out of the next chapters of life.
Want to experience The Quest for yourself? Click HERE for registration information.
