July 13, 2026

He who travels without a guide needs two hundred years for a two days' journey.

In the poem, this line is spoken by the hoopoe, chosen to lead the other birds on their pilgrimage across seven valleys to find the Simorgh, their true king. Attar, writing in twelfth-century Persia within an established Sufi tradition, has the hoopoe answer birds who would rather wander off alone than commit to a guided path. Without direction, he warns, even a short journey stretches into centuries of circling in place. That warning fits any morning: the day ahead is short, but wandering through it without a plan can make it feel endless.