I’m particularly drawn to ones that I have actually walked. So, over the years, I’ve been taking pictures of them.
For me, the intrigue of a path is at least two-fold.
First, a path typically is heading somewhere. Often, that somewhere is something you can't see (especially at the beginning). But, clearly something is down the path that is worth seeing (or worth going to).
Which leads to the second idea — others have apparently agreed that there is a destination involved. They've been on the path — both creating and sustaining it. In other words, the fact that enough people have travelled it implies something...that there is something the path is headed to. Maybe it is something glorious, like an epic vista or a waterfall. Maybe it is the journey of it itself that is important. Maybe it...just stops at some point, leaving you with a question like, "What's the point if...?" or "...did I get off the path somehow?".
Some paths are travelled enough that you can see fellow travelers using it right now. They may be ahead of you or behind you, but you can see them (or hear them). On other paths, though clearly worn, no one is in sight. You know it's been (is being) travelled by others, but for now you're on by yourself — just having to believe something about the reason the path is there.
The merging of these ideas feels important. Perhaps, it is that sometimes you have to travel where others have gone, in order to find what is worth heading to. Sometimes that needs to be done by yourself. But, the knowledge that others apparently have gone before you can encourage you to take the first step (and all the subsequent ones). A path indicates that on a journey, wherever it is heading, you are ultimately not alone (even if, in the moment, it feels like it).
Paths are a kind of physical evidence of this. They invite you to just start walking — to see where they take you...perhaps to places you've never been, to see things you've never seen, or to discoveries you've not yet imagined.
