During the Journey

Thank you for the many comments to the last blog. It's true we all need to be a support system for each other. When someone has a tragedy there is never a more important time for them to have people around. Each and everyone's tragedy is different. As a couple of my sister's commented I had the experience of losing my mother when I was 19. It was a tough time and I still have times I wish I could just call her and ask a question or just tell her about my day. Even with my going through that, I still don't know what to do when someone goes through something similar because I know it's different for them. I love the quote that someone left for us, "I can't say that I know what you're feeling, so I'll just say that I care." There is never a more important time to have a social circle, to be socially well than when you have a tragedy or a great blessing.

We are on a journey of life, a journey of aging and knowing that we are getting older. As the commenter Starr said "I love the cycle of life...it is the only thing we can count on...if you have been born, you will die." So isn't it about what we do on this journey, it's important for us to find a path that we love and to keep walking.

There is painting at the BYU Art Museum by Thomas Worthington Whittredge. It's call Woodland Glade and is of a forest scene. It has a thicket in the front that almost seems impossible to get through, fallen trucks, shrubs, branches all over the place that just seem to get in your way but off in the distance the is the patch of light, the opening, the freedom. I image life like this picture, it's not like stroll in a park, just easy going, a flat pathway, but more like this thicket and when we arrive at the light we can turn around and see what we have accomplished. We can see that we have overcome so much on the journey and finally rest knowing that we didn't just give up.

The journey will become it's easiest when we can achieve true wellness. When we are keeping ourself physically fit and clean in the environment around us. When we have others around us to give us a hand. We need to have a reason to keep going, a spiritual purpose so when know this is just a journey and not the end and that there is know real end. We need to understand that we can keep going. We also need to trust ourself that things will get better. Otherwise we would get to a fallen tree truck, look at it and decide there is no reason to climb over, or we would give up after the first try. Or worst we would convince ourself that we can't do it even it we 'wanted' to. We can do it, all of us.

I am grateful for the pieces of life that I have had to climb over. Because I lost a mother I know the importance of those relationships. There were times where I had to wonder if I would financially make it and now am more grateful for the paycheck I get every two weeks. I have seen the birth of my son and know there is more to him that just science. I have knocked doors in a new city all day long without a person wanting to talk to me, to end with a man offering my a glass of water allowing my to know that we are all part of the same human family and there is a connection between us all.

When have you looked back on your path and seen a fallen tree truck and wondered at the amazement of having passed over it?
When have you turned a corner and seen the trees open to a smooth patch of light and realized there is peace along the journey?