A Brief Break From the Rules

Lunch break from the highpoint of the Animas Mountain Trail
Durango, Colorado - May 24, 2011

For some unknown explanation, this week dawned with absolutely no motivation to blog.  There you have it, a true confession.  The weekend was exhausting and Monday was a trying day for reasons that shall remain private for now.  But it's funny how this blogging thing works.  At least for me, even when I don't want to, I still want to.   Does that make any sense to anyone else??   So I decided to take a quick break from the Diet Rules to Break posts you can find here and here.   Today, I'm going to write what's on my heart.

Shortly after I began this blog in May, 2010, I borrowed the idea of a daily picture from my friend, Margie, who blogged at My Healthy Living Through Weight Control, and was my first follower.  Two days after writing the post to which I linked above, she and her husband, Bruce, were killed by a suicidal driver while on their daily early morning walk.  I still miss her every time I sit down to write a post and will always honor her with my daily pictures.  The pictures I choose each day are not random, but carefully selected to either go along with what I intend to write or at the very least, reflect my mood that day. Which leads to the picture with this post as it does BOTH of those things!

I am sensing so much struggle amongst my friends in BlogLand and to a certain degree, in myself.  It seems every day, I move through my reader and see someone else having such a hard time of it.  For some, it is lack of motivation.  A journey that just seems so long and the knowledge that once the goal is reached, the journey doesn't end, it just changes!  For others, it is a myriad of pressures from without over which they have no control, but can't help but effect the mind so involved in the journey within!  Some have suffered devastating illnesses or accidents to family/friends and are having to shuffle lives with sudden caregiving responsibilities and lack of control over food choices (we all know that sitting in a hospital room is one of the WORST places to try and eat healthy) while others are dealing with personal challenges that require trying new meds that may help the illness, but carry the depressing side effect of weight gain.  I know of one friend who has just moved from one state to another and is missing the support group she left and facing the daunting task of finding another.  Another is waiting word on whether a proposal she submitted will be funded or not.  If it is, it could have huge ramifications on the remainder of her career.  And I could go on and on.

Every one of these have a name and a blog.  And as I thought of this, I remembered the picture Mr. B took at our lunch break the day we hiked this trail.  Some thoughtful trail maintainers had hauled that wonderful bench three miles up more than 1000 feet for the enjoyment of hikers for years to come.  I remember sitting there and pondering the number of paths I saw laid out in front of me.  And I remember thinking that on that day in May, I knew someone on every one of those paths.

The same holds true this morning.   I am grateful that today I can also name friends in BlogWorld who are very much on the straight and narrow path you see winding down the middle of the picture.  Yes, this summer has held a curve or two like you see in the upper part just before the road disappears, but they've held fast to their plan and the curve did not derail them.  They are an encouragement to me because I know their stories and I know it is NEVER easy.  

The road to the left of the straight one wound through some hills and valleys, but comes back out on the main road.  We all take that side road from time to time, but we find ways to negotiate the hills and valleys, we never get totally lost and pretty soon, find ourselves back on the road to our destination.

But oh my, look at the river to the right of the straight road.  As far as I could see from behind me to the view from the bench, it wound and wound and wound.  You could see how it had carved its way for decades along THE PATH OF LEAST RESISTANCE!  And I realized that the river will never connect to the straight firm pavement of the highway.  It will go under it, it will weave around both sides of it, but it will NEVER join it.  And if we happen to be on the river path, we can never get to the straight path without pulling ourselves up out of the water and walking, crawling or running to join the straight road that was carefully planned by experts to follow the BEST route that avoids the most danger.  

Every one of us is on one of these paths.   I am so encouraged by those who strengthen me as they work their way down that path towards their goal looking neither right nor left at other alternatives, just looking ahead at the goal.  I see others who are off the main route for whatever reason and struggling through the hills and valleys trying to find their way back.  They've been on that straight road and can see it beside them.  They've just got to keep motoring on until they find the place where they can rejoin the highway.  And finally, I see those in the river.   Some are close to drowning and begging for a life preserver.  Sadly, we can encourage from the banks, but this is one time, the life preservation techniques can only be administered from within.  The longer we allow ourselves to be carried along the path of least resistance, the more exhausted we will become and the harder it will be to pull ourselves out of the water and climb to the straight path.  

Yes, I thought all of those things as I sat there that day and truthfully, I never intended to write about them, but they came back to me this morning as I read even more blogs of people that I care about who are struggling.  It is no secret to this blog that I am a Christian and am very much of the praying sort.  And I don't mind telling you that on that day, as well as this day, lots of prayers were said for some very specific people who are struggling.  From up there, those paths all looked so close together and as if it would be so easy to move from one to the other.  I often wonder if that isn't the way God sees us and thinks, "child, it isn't that hard.  YOU are the one making it hard.  The paths are close.  Find the one that gets you to your goal the quickest.  Don't make it so hard.  It doesn't have to be."  I know not every one reading this follows my belief system and that is so o.k.   But I also know you can look at my vantage point in that picture and see how easy it would be to get from one path to the other.  It just takes some effort and determination. 

Where am I today?  I'm currently negotiating some hills and valleys that are personal, but it effects the way I eat.  But I can see the intersection where I can rejoin the straight path and I'm almost there.  Today is better than yesterday.  And yesterday was better than the weekend.  I'm not going to have the July results for which I'd hoped, but the valleys got in the way and I am happy to say I stayed to the left and didn't fall in the river!!

Like I said, this was from the heart.  It may not have made much sense to you, but it makes perfect sense to me.  If you saw yourself in anything I wrote, you were probably on target, because most every sentence I wrote was directed to someone who is on my heart.  You can't "live" in this community and not care.  If you don't, you probably shouldn't be "living" in this community of wonderful Bloggers.

On which path are you traveling today?  I may know where you are, but others may not, so tell me and in doing so, you may find some new friends.

Diet Rules To Break - Rule #3 Coming Very Soon!