Choosing the Harder Path

The thrill and discomfort of new beginnings

Choose the harder path

For it will provide a stretch

That increases strength

Living life like an explorer can be a perspective that is difficult to muster up the courage to activate. In our early years, we experience a constant adventure filled with twists and turns that takes us to all parts of ourselves and our surroundings. After this joy ride, we end up settling in a land that then becomes our habitat. Or better yet, our habitual happenstance. We end up being busy with what is, and can rarely have the time to ask “what if?”.

Sometimes a pause, whether it be momentary or semi-permanent, can allow us the time to raise our heads and see the vastness of that which has yet to be uncovered. We might even see that distant mountaintop that is calling out our name, waiting for us to come visit. It is in these times that we can reassess our progress to date, and make a decision to accept an invitation to scale to a new plane of our existence. Sure, it can be tough, it can be draining, it can be exhausting and it can even cause us to question our intentions and motivations. But what if those early explorers decided to stop the search for new lands just because they were tired and it was too hard? Well, it’s clear to see that we would have missed out on another beautiful and breathtaking aspect of our civilization.

So, why not rise to the occasion, strap on the backpack of new beginnings and go on a path of twists and turns? We just might find that it was the journey we thought we weren’t ready for, but desperately needed. For as we scale these new mountaintops, we can rise up and take in a newer, fresher and more intoxicating breath we sometimes call life. And as the English novelist, George Eliot, once quoted — “It is never too late to be the person you could have been.”