Let’s Go on a Hike

Believe it or not, every single one of our lives has a destination ahead. For some it comes soon, and for others it takes a very long time. Yet none of us truly know what our destination is until we arrive.

So many people are striving for that destination. They are so focused on the end result, that they do not enjoy the journey.

Imagine that life is like a hike through the woods. At first, you’re excited to go. You have your shoes on tight, your water bottle filled, and your map in hand. You are eager to start your journey to see what lies ahead. You take the time to carefully look around and truly enjoy nature. You feel as if you’re on top of the world, and you want to walk forever.

After a while, you begin to grow tired. Your water bottle is half-way gone, and your legs are getting weak. You look into the horizon and see that the sun is slowly disappearing behind the trees, so you start to panic. In your panic, you turn yourself around and suddenly do not know which direction you came from. With darkness approaching, you do the only thing that makes sense to you. You run.

As you run through the woods you get scratched by branches, stumble on logs, and splatter mud all over your shoes. It seems as if everything is falling apart. You are alone, you do not know where to go, and you want to give up and cry. You sit on a fallen over tree and bury your cold hands into your sweaty face. It’s over.

But that’s what you think.

You look up and see a familiar sign. A sign that points you to the parking lot. Energy comes flooding back into your body as you realize that you’re so close to being home. You run. As you feel your shoes hit the pavement you look at the sky. The sun is barely setting. You pull out your phone to check the time. 6 o’clock. What? You think to yourself. The sun was setting 20 minutes ago. It’s only 6:00? How? You made everything around you seem worse than it actually was, and in the hustle of trying to leave, you could not enjoy your hike.

You missed the mother bird feeding her babies, the beautiful view of the sky from the top of the hill, the squirrels running through the woods looking for food, and the deer sleeping by the trees.

My point in this drawn-out metaphor is that when you panic about something in your life, everything seems so much worse than it actually is. You lose precious time worrying about something that isn’t even a big deal, and you miss out on the wonderful things that are actually happening.

Sometimes it’s good to take a deep breath and look at your life. Look at what’s around you and appreciate where you are. You’ll be surprised what you have been missing out on.