Everything has it's place. Sometimes words are spoken, honest intentions or not.. That end up being for the highest good. I don't think that anything happens without being for the better, Roo. Perhaps not finding their way is exactly what some people need for a little while to realize that it's not the destination that matters.. it's about enjoying the scenic route, deviating from the path and making a new one. I found myself literally doing that the other night on a mountaintop at a psytrance party. It lead me to a tree I dubbed the Majic Buddah Tree. And knowledge I did yonder receive 
We are one <3
That may be so but from the word speaker's consistent perspective (relative to himself) certain old patterns may no longer be serving him that he thus wishes to change. Perhaps you are right re transcending the path by taking detours.. I honestly don't know. I feel that for myself I am enjoying the orientation to my true north, the path of least resistance / most direct way towards what I need (or choose/desire to experience from a higher perspective). I have spent six years flying down all directions of the needle and it feels great to come across something I am passionate about and want to pursue to its end. Maybe some form of stability is right for me at the moment, and maybe in another time I needed transience so would wander the globe penniless. One size doesn't fit all, from a 3d perspective, and so the manifestations of one's growth differ widely. I didn't find what I was looking for for so long but honestly I think it was something like this: "just my energetic pattern expanding and untangling itself, like the growth of a plant or the spasm of light as its directed through different lenses or the first flight of a young bird, while all the while orientating itself to some kind of magnetic field and becoming more and more aligned with its true self." It just was. Just a natural, organic expansive period of growth. Now I am more conscious of my "part to play" and have been blessed with many synchronicities that have guided me to where I am that my ship has "stabilised" and I feel "right." It could be nothing like this and I am simply being thrown around by forces that aren't metaphysical but are economical, social, cultural, psychological and I am simply projecting meaning onto my past so it doesn't seem to insignificant or random. But I like to think, whether in error, that behind those earthly forces are spiritual forces and behind me is spirit and there is a destiny to this (to my life). I feel I am in the right place because I wake up in the morning excited and I am very passionate about the things I am learning which all relate to things I have a real interest in. But I wouldn't have that same passion if I hadn't gone through a lot of shit in the past six years because I learned a lot about myself and came to have a deep yearning for understanding. So I guess it doesn't make sense to fragmentalise "routes" in the "path" but I think increased enjoyment, passion, and consciousness are indicators that one is getting closer to themselves. But yes, the path away could well be necessary too. It all depend on your higher desire, what you as soul chose for yourself: if you are in darkness then you are unconscious of the light and that is your experience - you are not missing out on anything because you aren't aware of anything else; if you are aware of the light then that IS the light and so your higher choice must be to move towards it; and if you are aware that you ARE the light then you simple be it and that is your higher choice. So basically you can't go wrong. Darkness is darkness, light is light. As soon as you are conscious of the light you know your choice involves it, because if it didn't you wouldn't be aware of it. So light for me is this magnetic pull towards my true north. I seem to be aligning more and more each day. My awareness of it means it is right for me. If I wasn't aware of it would I still be able to talk about it and desire to move towards it? So even just the fact that we can talk about paths and detours and true experience means we are on the right track. Because whatever we are aware of we are. But I do think there is a "goal," or centre point, or "centre self," that we generally gravitate towards (or around). I am getting better at feeling was serves me (in terms of experience) and what doesn't (better doesn't mean to say I am good at it). I am enjoying become more conscious and I think, for me at least, this is THE desire, and to serve, also, in some small way. So detours are detours as long as you need them, and yes I agree that is must be the experience that matters, but I would also add that there is somewhere you and I want to go, somewhere to reach, where we can be more of ourselves. Right now I want to orientate myself to the most direct (conscious) route. Also, though, I want to have a Buddhic enlightenment (transcend the "I" identity) and so that would involve transcending the story. But by doing that I become more of myself (by being awareness of "oneness") but also I get to experience this person called Roo become more of himself. Perhaps that is because by getting out of your own way you allow "what is" to more easily "grow" you. So a destination and enjoying the ride are both important, both part of it. Kind of paradoxical, wanting to transcend the story (become "you" the formless) but also want to be immersed in it (become "you" - the self - the form), but there you go. Just let go Roo, damn it.. Ahhhh.
