"I must have traveled down a thousand roads.
Been so many places, seen so many faces,
Always on my way to somethin' new.
Ohh, but it doesn't matter,
'cause no matter where I go,
Every road leads back,
Every road just seems to lead me back to you."

- Bette Midler, "Every Road Leads Back To You"

So here I am again. I thought I'd forgotten all about this here thing that I'd started, what, ages ago! But like the song goes, every road seems to lead back to it. I remember a beautiful time long gone,standing by a cliff on White Beach in Puerto Galera, with myself and the buddies facing that 30-foot wave about to slam on the face of the cliff, promising to give us an unforgettable, if painful memory. With only a few seconds before impact, Stuart has a eureka moment, and he shares his insight with us.

"Don't worry guys... just go with the flow!"

That mammoth of a wave came roaring in, sending us all into various degrees of pain and fear. In retrospect, though, Stuart may have actually saved all of us from a fate worse than getting our pretty little faces cut up on the sharp rocks... or being drowned... or being swept out into the South China Sea for the sea turtles to gobble up. Just like the guy in "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Universe," who learns how to fly by being distracted at the last second, we too got distracted by Stu's strange words at the last moment before impact. We were all too distracted to do anything silly, and so we went with the flow.

My point is, the tides of fortune have brought me back to this blog. And so, in keeping with "the flow," I make this entry here and now.

Epiphany No. 27

Another EUREKA moment for me. A chatmate was insisting on her obviously warped view of love and relationship. I try to be as polite as possible, while pointing out how infantile her perspective was. All the time I'm thinking to myself, "you're over 30, with no stable relationship, and no prospects in site... and you're lecturing me on the fine points of love and relationship???"

Then it dawned on me... I'm fast approaching 40, my business track record is simply horrible, and my net worth is zero. And I'm an aspiring business tycoon. Right.

The lesson here? You can't sell what you don't own. What right, what mandate do I have to write about succeeding in business? I can't even get the darned thing right!

THE ACTION PLAN:

Walk the walk, so you can talk the talk.

A little story...

There were two moths fluttering happily together. One of them saw a flame shining brightly in the distance.

"Let's go closer and have a look," said one of the moths, the boy.

"Are you sure?" asked the girl moth, "It looks dangerous."

"I'm sure it will be fine," insisted the boy moth. And the two moths flapped closer to the brightly burning flame.

"Oh, how beautiful!" cried the little bugs as they flew closer to the flame.

"Don't you just love how warm it makes you feel?" asked the boy moth. "Let's move in closer," he invited.

"But won't we be too close to the flame?" protested the girl moth.

"We'll be fine," the boy moth assured her. "We'll feel nice and warm inside."

So the moths flew in closer still to the burning flame. At first they were very cautious, flying in wide arches around the dancing fire.

"Oh, how lovely the flames look," gushed the girl moth. "And such warmth. I want to dance around the flame!"

"Yes, let's dance around the flame!"

And with reckless abandon, the moths cavorted around the tongues of fire, flying in graceful pirrouettes, celebrating their freedom in daring sommersaults.

The girl moth was drunk with passion, and seduced by the warmth of the flames beside her, she believed she and the fire were one... wistful, sensuous, and invincible. And the boy moth, caught up in the throes of his own pleasure, simply watched, hypnotized as the girl moth fluttered ever closer to the fire.

Then it happened. The girl moth's wing brushed lightly against the bright burning pillar. And the girl moth exploded into a bright beautiful fireball. In the silence of an instant, she was gone, all of her, even her scream consumed by the beauty she had embraced.

The boy moth watched in enthralled silence. Then he fluttered away, alone in the darkness.