When a great tracker loses the trail of an animal, he may learn where it has gone by discovering all the places it has not gone.

In the moment the tracker loses the track he meets the full 360-degree dimension of possibility. The animal could have gone in any direction and so each path of blank, trackless soil is talking to him.

“Not this path”, “not this path”

As he walks he is eliminating wedges of the full degree of that rotation. Refining where the trail may run by learning where it does not run. In this way, a tracker is always on track even when he is off it.

I always wanted to be someone whose life was an expression of the things I cared about.  For me in some cases coming to that path began as an imitation of what I thought I should care about.

The gift of finding the path of ‘not this’. The realization that certain things I thought were for me was in fact not part of my path helped me know myself much more deeply.

By tracking imitation, my own trail twisted, turned and then opened to the authentic.  In this way, no trail is ever wasted by the tracker.

Walking in a life that is not for you can be the beginning of knowing the life that is meant for you.

The path of ‘not this’ is a part of the way of a tracker.