Part of us might question why we’d ever tread over old ground.
If we’ve already walked this path before – if we’ve travelled from one end to the next, seen where it brought us, and ultimately moved on – what’s to be gained by repeating that process?
Simple:
More than we know.
Because as familiar as that old journey might appear at a glance, it’s not the same as it used to be.
Nothing ever is.
The inexperienced mind is an open one.
When we begin, we know nothing. We might have some preconceived ideas or beliefs about what we’ll encounter, but for the most part, we’re a blank slate.
As uncomfortable as this condition is in a world where ignorance is a sin and mastery is the goal, it’s the perfect starting point…
Because it’s only with open eyes and an unbiased mind that we can see things truly as they are.
With the freedom to see the world for what it is, we learn quickly. Experience assimilates. Connections form in our minds, bridging the gap between all we know and all we’ve accumulated.
This is a valuable process. Learning the lesson once saves us from learning it a second time. But this progress comes at a price.
When we return the thing – when we have a renewed experience, or re-encounter the same circumstances once again – we no longer see it as it is.
We see it as we remember it to be.
Our mind is no longer empty.
We’re not interacting with the thing itself. We’re interacting with a memory of it.
Rather than surveying reality with open eyes and a clear head, our vision is obscured with figments of our imagination..
Things we’ve constructed in our minds and now take as truth, regardless of how unmoored from current reality they might be.
Left to our own devices, we remain blissfully unaware of how the ground beneath our feet changes as we tread back over old ground.
Because we think we know the way, we’re not tuned in to those subtle shifts which inevitably occur as we wear a track through our circumstances.
Just as a trickle of water carves canyons over time, the lay of the land doesn’t transform overnight. But the pressures of time, repetition and systemic strain do what they’ve always done: create change. Even if we don’t realise it.
This is worth keeping in mind when we revisit places, things, and experiences we’ve encountered before.
We might assume them to be the same. But rather than taking that assumption at face value, we’re best served by looking one level deeper. Studying reality, not our preconceptions of it.
Some lessons can’t be learned on our first outing.
Some truths only emerge through repetition.
Far from being a waste of time, a return to places we’ve been before can grant us a new perspective: one we’d struggle to find elsewhere, in less familiar surroundings…
But thanks to (and in spite of) the knowledge we’ve attained to date, it’s clear for us to see – if we just know where to look.