When you’re traipsing around in the night, in an unknown and unfamiliar place, it’s important to know how to find your way back home. The ninja call this the art of not losing your way.

The tactic is simple: when you’re infiltrating one of these places, and you need to plan for a quick exit, tie a rope to your belt and leave it trailing behind you as you go. That way, when it’s time to exit, you grab the rope at your hip and let it lead you out.

In my last book, I shared the fairy tale of the Princess and the Goblin as a story with the same wise counsel. In the tale, the princess Irene has been sheltered in the castle her whole life. One day, she discovers some stairs, and when she wanders up there, she finds a mysterious woman. The woman gives her a ring with an invisible thread attached to it and tells Irene the thread will always lead her safely home. And it does.

I call that thread the thread of original blessing. Like anything true, it has many names. This thread connects us with our souls, with our own deepest inner wisdom. And when we’re lost, or stuck, or needing to get out of bad situation, this thread will always lead us home. It will return us to the center of ourselves, where we find clarity and direction about what comes next.

I worry that in our culture, we have forgotten the art of not losing our way. We have lost our ability to find our way home. Even though our soul is ever-present, we often need help finding our way back there when the world gets wild or cloudy.

Many of our most cherished spiritual practices help us do just this. Meditation clears our minds and grounds us. Prayer offers us perspective and opens up our sense of what’s possible. Offering gratitude draws us into compassion, which is always a direct line back home to ourselves. There are so many ways we can find our way home.

We can take heart that our invisible thread, our trailing rope, our soul-home-base-detection-system, is well intact within us. Sometimes, it just takes a little courage to reach for it and begin to fumble along in the shadows.

Wherever you find yourself today, may you feel peace in knowing the way home is always waiting for you, and may you find your way there as often as you need.

Sometimes, we need a little outside support and help when we’re trying to find our way back to our souls. I offer spiritual direction for people across the globe as a way of offering exactly that. Learn more here.