the joy of returning from a business trip

I just got back from a business trip and a couple of quotes and thoughts are going through my head that I'd like to share:

"To create the olive, king of all trees, a hundred years is required. An onion plant is old in nine weeks. I have lived as an onion plant. It has not pleased me. Now I wouldst become the greatest of olive trees..."

"...and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

Before walking through the door at my apartment I stopped to remember what I had experienced, afraid it would too easily get left behind in the transition back to my normal schedule.  Standing there, I reflected on the experiences of the past few days.  It may seem overly deep to some, the feelings that were brought on by a trade show in Vegas.  To me, though, these are legitimate and real feelings.

Looking over the past few days, I recall being helped, respected, befriended, and even sought after.  As well, I met people and made friends I respect and look up to.  Not to say that these things don’t happen back home, but it simply felt really good to be actively involved in creative and productive conversations and to be so frequently engaged in social interaction, often with people I just met.  It helped me realize how it is I would like to live my life, how it is I would like to spend my time.  While relaxation and leisure are great and important, too many days have I spent excessively self-absorbed in inconsequential activities such as facebook and netflix (both of which can be wonderful in moderation).  As Og Mandino wrote in his terrific and insightful book, The Greatest Salesman in the World, “I have lived as an onion plant. It has not pleased me.”  I desire to more actively pursue the memorable and meaningful experiences of life.

In addition to these feelings and desires to be more of a producer and a contributor and not only a consumer, I was reminded of the feeling one can get upon returning home after a long or significant experience.  Perhaps you have felt this before.  It’s the feeling that, while YOU have changed significantly, the rest of the world is in the same place you left it.  I desire to have as many experiences as possible in which I truly progress and am not simply left in the same place, unchanged as time moves on.

Like T. S. Eliot said, we will come to “know the place for the first time.”  This can be in seeing the wonderful things we may have taken for granted as well as seeing our former selves and where we ought to be – an awakening of ourselves to a realization of our possibilities and potential.