A Travel Essay from the Inner Journey

Ever since I first heard my guide, Hayley, talk about the concept that we all come into this life to play our piece in the great collective puzzle of life, the idea has intrigued and, frankly, terrified me!

What even is my piece? Will I ever find it? Will it be good enough? (Hello, Gene Key 48 in my Purpose, with your pesky Shadow of Inadequacy!!). How will I know if I’m playing my piece “right”?

It brought me such a mix of conflicting emotions. On the one hand, relief that I don’t have to do everything; on the other, the fear that I might never find what my piece is supposed to be.

But as the concept grew roots in me, I knew it had to be connected to doing the inner work. This is my home, my safe place, my happy place. This inner world of mine is the ground beneath my feet, the air in my lungs, the blood in my veins. It’s the heart of me. It’s the best of me.

I knew it was important, and after three years of delving into my Gene Keys, I was starting to believe that it was important to more than just me! I was starting to believe (or hope, or dream) that it might just be important for other people too.

And then I began The Sage’s Golden Path Retreat, and Richard Rudd shared the word for my Life’s Work Gene Key and Line … interiority!

My piece is interiority. If you want to read about how my mind was blown wide open by this, make yourself a pot of tea and read my first Travel Essay – The Beginning of the Journey.

My Contribution to the Whole

Richard says, “Make a priority of your inner seeking.”, and that is exactly what I do, every day. I sit at the pages of my journal every single morning, no matter what the day ahead holds … busy day at work, relaxing Saturday, getting ready for a little jaunt out … whatever the day ahead is going to be, that morning session with just me and my journal is non-negotiable. If I’ve got a crazy busy day, or a really early start, then I’ll be up before 5 am, to ensure I get at least forty to fifty minutes of journaling in first.

So, I believe that my contribution to the whole is to do the inner work and share this passion. My piece is to contribute energy and love, enthusiasm and joy. My piece is to deep dive and bring my treasures into the light.

I am making a priority of my inner seeking. That’s my job.

“The majority of humans do not even realise that there is an inner world.”
Richard Rudd

For someone who has been doing this inner work through journaling for nearly thirty years, it still boggles my mind that there actually are people who don’t do the inner work!

I see it as a great privilege to know this inner world so intimately. It’s my privilege to do this work. And I will not squander it. I have been given the gift of knowing that inside me is a myriad faceted world, full of magic and wonder.

If other people don’t get that, that’s their business (even if it is mind-boggling to think that).  I’m not here to make people see this inner world. No, I’m here to show them what I see when I dive into my interior.

If they are inspired to make their inner journey themselves, that’s amazing. But it’s up to them. I can’t walk their path for them.

I am Here to Mine Some of the Riches of my Own Inner Being

And that is what I do, every day, at the pages of my journal.

It’s what I do every day when I talk to my best friend, Meghan, who is also on this journey (so she really gets me at a very deep level).

Riches are uncovered, realisation dawns, I see something that little bit clearer.

I start to pull at the corner of a layer, sometimes afraid of what it might reveal. What if I peel this layer of protective belief back, only to find a nobody, with nothing to say or contribute?! What if I slough off this skin of trauma and suffering, only to find it’s the most interesting part of me, and Healed Lizzie is really rather dull? It’s a crazy thought, but we can get so comfortable with our old friends our Shadows, and we become so identified with them, that we’re not sure what might come next, should we move through them and into the land of Gifts beyond.

But for all that fear, I’m mining anyway; for the riches far outweigh those fears. I have found again and again that I am the vessel for unlimited riches. I am the keeper of a library-full of stories … and we’re talking Hogwarts-Esque/Bodleian Library here! I just need to keep mining. For I never know what I might uncover. I never know what jewel I’ll find next.

I wanted to give you a real-life example of a jewel that I uncovered during my last journey through my Golden Path, and I realised that I just need to look at the forgiveness I found for myself in seeking forgiveness for my mother. The forgiveness was immense and many-fold, for wrapped inside the forgiveness for my mum, was a great wash of forgiveness for myself; for that younger self who thought there was something wrong with her because she was unloved by her mother; for my adult self who carried that wound for decades. What a treasure chest opened up for me, as I dived deeper and deeper into the layers of forgiveness.

It’s For More Than Just Me

Richard Rudd offers this glimpse of what might be possible, but also cautions that it may never be so, when he says, “If when you have discovered more of these treasures, you wish to share them to encourage others to go within, that may also be part of your destiny, but it is by no means essential.”

Of course, I know now, having been through my Pearl Sequence twice, that me sharing my riches IS actually part of the service I am here to bring to the collective. Sharing my enthusiasm for the treasures I uncover is part of me.

This work, this constant diving into my own interior, this glorious new word I have for it … “interiority” … it is such a prime and primal part of my work in the world, and it fills me with such joy and excitement, that I cannot help but share it.

I have found too that the more I share with others, then the more polished my treasure becomes, the more brightly it shines, and the more precious it becomes to me.

Every treasure becomes like Aladdin’s lamp … the more I polish it, the more magic becomes available to me.

Oh, I wonder if this is the meaning of the Aladdin tale?! That even the most mundane finding can be polished and tended to, until its magic is brought forth?

Maybe! After all, the Gene Keys do remind us again and again that we can find the magic in the mundane.

The Gene Keys teach us that our greatest treasures lie right here, in the midst of our ordinary, everyday lives.

The photographs I’ve used in this post are all of sunrises. Sunrise is one of my favourite times to take photographs. I love how the world is bejewelled in dew that’s catching the morning rays. I love how lens flare on my camera causes sun sparks and fascinating artifacts on the photographs. I simply had to use sunrise shots for this post because they always feel like finding treasure!!

You can check out my Flickr Sunrises Album, if you’d like to see more!!