Dare To Discover
On October 12, 1942, Christopher Columbus landed on the island known today as, the Bahamas, completing his 5-week voyage from Spain to discover America. Today, the event is marked as, “El Día de la Hispanidad,” a day in which Spain celebrates Christopher Columbus’s voyage and expansion of the Spanish crown. What most people do not know is that had history been a bit different, the language landscape would look very unlike that of today. Columbus actually went to Portugal, Italy, and England before approaching Spain to fund his journey. All three countries said, “No.” Portugal actually said, “No,” many times as Columbus was very persistent. However it was Queen Isabella I of Castile and King Ferdinand II of Aragon, the ruling monarchs in Spain at the time, who gave their support. This is also the same monarchy that was responsible for La Reconquista, the ending of the 800-year reign of Islam over the Iberian Peninsula, reclaiming Spain as we know it today, a unified Christian country solely pledging their allegiance to the Catholic Church. Thus, had Portugal, Italy, or England said, “Yes,” the third most spoken language behind English and Mandarin would have been Portuguese or Italian. Or English could have been more predominant than it is, making our world that much closer to one common language. Yet, it was the monarchs of Spain that said, “Yes,” and it is its people, today, who celebrate the 12th of October as part of their heritage and history.
A day celebrating Christopher Columbus can create a debate for many, as it has been noted how poorly he treated the indigenous people he encountered and due to his discovery many of those indigenous cultures, unfortunately, came to their end. Those arguments are completely understood and honored, however, today, let us focus on the deep seed of desire that Columbus had for his voyage and how it pertains to the desires we hold to discover new landscapes within ourselves in our daily lives.
Good or bad, Columbus dared to discover a new world. He knew something was beyond the horizon of the Atlantic and that he wouldn’t, “fall off the face of the earth.” Good or bad, he dared to explore. Good or bad, he listened to the calling that was in his heart. But who put it there, this, “calling?” Who puts it there in each of us? We all have that same yearning to try something new or to discover new landscapes around or within ourselves. In many, ways we are all explorers, like Columbus. It is part of being human.
Yet, the One who places this desire in our hearts is the same as the One who gives the birds the gift to sing, the frogs the sound to croak, and the river the water to flow. It is the one common call to live our journey and purpose, which we all innately have. It is divinely connected to others, for example, as we are all still evolving from Columbus’s discovery in many ways, while at the same it is intimately personal and singular.
The word, Esperar, in Spanish means both, “to wait and to hope,” two definitions that can be centered on the idea of lingering in a certain state, even stagnant. True, waiting and hoping can serve a wonderful purpose. It can gift us with a period of time to prepare for the journey that our soul knows is ahead. Thus, if we are focused, we can use this time of esperar, waiting, wisely. However, hoping and waiting can also keep us from moving forward. For example,
“I’m waiting until I retire to travel more.”
“I’m hoping that my ex will change his or her mind and will return to me. Then I will be happy.”
“I’m waiting until January 1, 2018 to start eating well and treating my body better.”
“I am hoping one day these negative thoughts will just stop, until then, I will wait.”
Such are examples of how we go from determination to living our excuses, hoping and waiting for something outside of ourselves to change and/or to motivate us. We give our power away and sit and wait and wait and wait….because guess what? The only one we are waiting on is Ourself.
We share in a certain essence of humanity with Columbus, it is our desire to discover and create. But a vast difference we have is that, today, we do not need the money or the permission of monarchs to discover new lands. We just need that of the Queen and King of Our Hearts, which is simply Ourselves.
Today, El Día de la Hispanidad, I celebrate man’s desire and ability to discover new lands, but not the land you or I stand on, but the eternal landscape that lies within each of us, that place where only we can go, that place that holds our limitless power and capability. Do we dare to go beyond the horizon of our fearful and limiting beliefs? If “falling off the face of our existence,” is impossible, then what would we dare to do? What in our hearts is dying to be discovered? Today, dare to go there. Buen Viaje. Happy Travels.
Namaste.