Life is an Obstacle Course
The prompt had many things running through my head. All of the ideas involved me getting from one place to another. Some involved hiking and some involved driving. I will start with a couple driving analogies:
I have a very dear friend, Amber. For a number of years, we used to carpool back and forth to work. Our route takes would take us on one of the busiest routes in the entire United States. Onea good day we were on Interstate 95 for about ten minutes. On our worst day maybe three hours. We had a saying that we weren’t out for a drive, we were on an adventure. I can’t tell you how many times that, in trying to get from one place to another, often because we were talking, we would make a wrong turn and proceed from there to our original destination.
Other times, while going to work, there was an accident on 95. We would have to decide whether to get off of the controlled access highway to the local roads. The problem being that if you were not one of the first to divert, they became congested and often even slower. Eventually we decided that if we were moving we would stay on the highway. We sometimes changed that and usually regretted it. We would always get there. Sometimes it was an hour or two late, but we got there. Thinking of it as an adventure often helped lower the stress.
I think that none of us expect to be on the German Autobahn on our path in life. There are often tolls. There are closed roads. The thing about trying to get from one place to another when the road is closed is that there is a sign that says detour. Life tends to be like that also. We may not recognize right away that we are on a detour from our path, but soon enough, before losing that path completely, we realize it. The good part about that is that it gives us time to think and reflect.
Many years ago, on a visit to my brother up in Maine, we travelled to Mount Washington. We drove up and the road was narrow. There were times that the road was not wide enough for two cars. The “rule” was that the car going down had the right of way. The car going up would wait at a wide point of the road for the car coming down to go past and then continue up. I didn’t think much about it at the time and we reached the summit.
Dennis and I decided to take a hike down from the summit along a trail then climb back up. There was a lake off in the distance that was our destination. We followed the very rugged and ragged trail that was more a suggestion and had trail markers evenly placed on the way. When we came upon people coming up Dennis told me to always keep going. The people on the way up would, like the cars, step off to the side and let us pass. When we got to the bottom I asked Dennis why that was. Dennis explained that going up was much more difficult so the people going down had the right of way to give the people going up a “forced” break to catch their breath.
I see obstacles on my path of becoming a better person, of dealing with my traumas, and of working on my life in the same manner. When I come to an obstacle on my path, I first know that, yes, I am on the path because I have seen the trail markers. I have asked and am working on the answers to harder and harder questions. I am working on being a positive light in the lives that I touch in a given day. The obstacle gives me a chance to catch my breath. It gives me the opportunity to think of the best work around, climb over, or just force my way through it. Obstacles are the adventures of life. Obstacles allow us to check our maps and catch our course bearings.
Our lives do not have GPS tracking. Many life markers we see. There are times when I have been going hard and I start to wonder if I have lost my way. If I haven’t seen a marker in a while. Some of my markers are these articles I write. I look to see if others on the path resonate with them. If nobody resonates with them it is quite possible that I have lost my way. I know that I am not doing anything that millions of others have done before me. I know I should see footprints and trail markers left behind. I am smart enough to know that I am not that smart to have found an easier path than anyone else. I am smart enough to know my path will bring me pain, bruises, scars, and more.
If it is going too easy. I know I am not on the true path.
