I've been "home" from the trail a while now. Most of the details of my old life are still on pause, however. I'm reluctant to resume my job, for a few reasons in addition to the simple fact that I've gotten quite used to not having to go to work. This in between state is actually getting a bit old. Purpose is one of the things that gives life meaning, and I am decidedly living without it at the moment. 

 

     Pursuing that, much less finding it, is a bit harder than just picking up where I left off though. These milestones make for good transitional crossroads, I've found. When I finished my thru hike of the Appalachian Trail, I kickstarted the changes that would land me in the medical field, with this pretty excellent career I've found myself in.  That hike also served to shape me into the man I am today, namely via the confidence building that goes along with testing ones abilities- the only way you can truly learn much about yourself, I'd wager. 

 

     Now that I've completed the CDT, spending 6 months or so hiking and the final trail month or more completely alone... where am I? I may not have come back with astounding answers, but instead questions. Questions are good too though. So many of us aren't questioning things enough. Or perhaps not deeply enough.

 

     One thing this transitional period has certainly shown me is that I do need to find something - or a collection of somethings - to apply my effort to. Languishing in one place is not for me. What exactly that is, I'm less certain.