My husband bought a bracelet for me over the weekend that caught my eye. The engraving on it says “Embrace the Journey.”
That’s one thing I haven’t been doing, you know. I haven’t really been embracing the life I live daily in the quest for the life I crave. I have been envisioning my current days as being held captive instead of what they really are.
One step. One step to the better on that journey we all take through life. And I know I am not the only one.
Because also this weekend I watched on TV New York City Fireman Matt Long describe going from a fire fighter one day to getting crushed by a bus while riding his bike to work in 2005. He told those watching what his journey had been like. He was not really supposed to survive and if he did, he wouldn’t walk again. He didn’t allow himself to be held captive. So much so that he was able to run in the NY City Marathon I believe it was in 2008. Really. He embraced the journey. He may not have liked it and it may have been painful, but he embraced the journey – he made of it what he needed to be where he is today. Go ahead, search his name and the name of his book, “The Long Run”. You will be amazed at his determination. Really makes anyone else’s journey, including mine, look like a game of Tidddely-Winks.
Also this weekend, my niece, someone else undergoing a journey similar to mine, noted that she had lost 18 sizes. She was buying new clothes for school (she’s a teacher) and was amazed at the amount she’d lost over 2 years. She embraces her journey. She thinks of new ways to make old food better. She lives her days as she did before this journey and doesn’t make it about the trip.
And to think, all this time I believed I wasn’t trying hard enough, in reality, I was trying too hard. Sometimes it really isn’t about not trying hard enough.
So tonight, I will go home, cultivate what is ready in the garden, (rumor has it tomatoes, green beans and cucumbers – the zucchini goes without saying), do my evening things and maybe just sit and read and not worry so much about last month, last week or yesterday.
And certainly not about tomorrow.