All journeys are stories. All stories are unfoldings. To travel is to change. To change is to communicate.

We all know that the acorn contains the oak tree within it – albeit in potential form. In the same way, a question contains the answer within it. The two are coeval – it is just that one is apparent and the other latent.

The lower (or rational) mind can struggle with this concept, until it is allowed to play with the idea for a while. The purpose of the acorn is the unfoldment of the tree, which in turn creates more acorns. The purpose of the question is the unfoldment of its answer, which in turn creates more questions.

Answers are specific to the essence of the question. Two acorns may seem alike, but the unfolding trees will be unique. A question requires different answers depending on who is asking.

Note: the answer itself is not the purpose; rather, the purpose is the developmental (learning) journey towards the fruitful answer. It is the fruitful effort which develops our powers. This is another way of expressing that verbs are always more real and more important than nouns. In potential, we are infinite. Yet in the here and now, and in the material world, how much of that infinity are you able to embody? If you want to become stronger and more flexible, you need to exercise – not only your body, but your understanding, and your relations to everything – especially your relations to your upsets.

So the purpose of an upset is found in the journey towards the resolution of that upset. We need these journeys in order to grow and develop. These journeys are our enlightenment. They are why we are here. And therapists should take note that the client brings the resolution with them as it is inherent in their upset. 'Solutions' do not need to be imposed from without.

Everything is language.

From the spoken word, emerged the written word as a further tool of communication. We forget how symbolic the process of writing is. When you learned to write, you would have been shown how to construct each letter. The writing of a single letter described a journey – a physical journey of the pen across the paper. Similarly, as you speak, the movement of your mouth, tongue and lips describes a physical journey.

As handwriting is replaced by digital typography, only the form of the finished letters have meaning – each letter appears at once complete, there is no consideration given to how the letter is created¹. It is symbolic of a world more attuned to ends than means, to nouns rather than verbs, to titles (like king or Prime Minister) rather than actions (like changing or ministering).

In the Jewish religion, scribes are still taught the importance of the journey. For a text to be religiously valid, its letters must have been formed in the correct way – the end form is less important than how each letter was created. Similarly, in Chinese calligraphy, the stroke order is an important component in determining the spirit imparted to each character.

So is learning a matter of ends, or means? Is a collector of musical instruments musical? Is a gatherer of facts intelligent? Are you a journeyman or a thief?

When we build experiences (or ideas) into our internal model, we do not build-in the experience itself, but our story of the experience. Two people witnessing the same event have different experiences because they tell the story of the event to themselves in their own way.

Every story is a journey. Some part of us understands that all stories in our world are about us; all the characters are us; all the journeys are ours.

Stories cultivate abstraction. The abstract mind (or higher mind) is the location of our internal model (which is where we store and restore our stories). When children are told fairy stories, they are given a means to deal with their hopes and fears in symbolic (abstract) terms. The story is about the other, so it feels detached (and thus safer); but deep within themselves, they understand it is about them (and they travel the same redemptive journey within themselves as the protagonist in the story).

All journeys are connected and similar.

The journey starts in darkness, undergoes some process, which leads to the light. In other words, there is a before, during and after. From where you are, you must travel to the centre (which is the centre of light), but to get there you must confront and vanquish all of your darkness (all the unresolved upset from your past and its projections into your future).

In other words, on any journey, you will meet with your upset – which is an opportunity to heal it. If, instead of healing it, you avoid it again, you remain trapped in a loop with that upset – and you will meet it again and again until at last it is healed.

The conquest of the darkness (by which the light is revealed) is the purpose of the darkness; just as the achievement of an answer is the completion (and meaning) of the question.

The destination looks after itself. Your higher Self guides your steps and determines at each step the best direction for you to take. You do not know where your path will lead – if you did already know, what would be the point of going there? You learn by touching the unknown. If the caterpillar tries to remake itself only from what it knows, it will come out of the chrysalis as a caterpillar. To change, it must embrace the space of not knowing.

Over time, our model is refined and our stories become better equipped to describe the universe. After any journey, we speak a new language (interact with our universe differently) because we are a new person.