enticing path

I'm taking an afternoon stroll, and I've paused for a moment as I have a slight quandary. I wasn't intending to come very far at all this afternoon, having already walked quite a long way up a steep hill, with my baggage. I've just come back to the Horizon guest house in Himachal Pradesh, and I'm on one of the little goat herder's tracks that winds its way up the hillside.

What I noticed, as I was walking, is that whenever I thought 'oh, I should turn back now,' I looked ahead along the path, and it seemed so enticing that I had to just continue. And even now where I've stopped for a little pause here, thinking surely I should turn back now, still I can see ahead that the path goes into some more rhododendron trees, and around a corner, and I feel drawn: drawn to continue a little bit. What's round that next corner? It's so enticing. And noticing this, I feel it is a little like the spiritual path.

Setting out, one might just feel one is dabbling. I'll just stick my toe in the water and see what mindfulness is all about, or perhaps dabble in yoga for a little, try some meditation perhaps. But before we know it, we are deep in that spiritual path, and the next step, not always easy, but is always calling to us, one way or another. And so on the spiritual journey there really is no turning back.

I guess on my little afternoon walk here, sooner or later I will return to the guest house. But certainly not quite yet, for that next corner in the path is calling to me... This is indeed an enticing path.