When Are We Going to Get There?

A frequent question from those who are going somewhere is this: “When are we going to get there?” It is a question typical of children headed for picnic places. It is a question typical of adults moving through the years of life. “When are we going to get there?”

“Life is a journey and not a destination.” But it is a journey that we should enjoy, and not live always as if happiness were always ahead⎯and not now.

Searching is inevitable. Reaching and wanting and waiting are also inevitable. But we should enjoy the journey, and not always wonder when we are going to ” get there.”

Young people⎯ and older ones also⎯ work long years to prepare themselves⎯for professions or other occupations, or to pay off the mortgage, to educate children, to pay bills, or to acquire things wanted, and wonder when they are going to “get there.” And then suddenly, sometimes there comes a sense that they have “been there” all along⎯and that they should have enjoyed the journey much more.

Sometimes men work long years looking toward retirement, toward what they will do someday. And suddenly there comes an awareness that life has been going on all the time, and that in looking too intently ahead they have failed somewhat to enjoy some of the lovely passing scenes.

The visits with loved ones, the quiet evening hours, the holiday, the picnic with all its wonderful inconveniences, the talk across the table, the give-and-take with one another, the going and the coming, the problems, the complexity of interests and activities⎯these are all part of “being there,” and should not be bypassed in the process of “getting there.”

We never seem quite to arrive at a point of completeness, but when we look back we often find that we didn’t quite recognize some things for what they were. The things we hope to get, the things we are going to get, shouldn’t rob us, so far as this day is concerned, of the happiness we have here. It isn’t likely that we shall find anything essentially sweeter than the love of loved ones, or the sense of accomplishment, or the wonderful feeling of being alive and on our way.

It is true that there is much that needs to be improved⎯and that heaven is ahead. But the journey of live is everlasting. It is going on all the time, and living happily and usefully now is a very important part of the process of “getting there.”