THE POTHOLED-PATH
Foreseeing and Evading Obstacles, and Winning!
Living things, like people, often know what they can become, if only they could overcome the obstacles in their way. It is not enough to walk straight; we must also be adept at evading hidden trouble, to foresee the pit ahead of time, and to avoid it.
I often say that life is like a race in which all the athletes are lined up at the starting line. It appears they all have an equal chance to win, except, the winner will ultimately be the athlete who is not only prepared, but the one who can circumvent the booby traps that line the race course. Being able to dodge all the potholes and evade the snares along the way, is par for the course. It is a necessary skill for winning the race.
Life has few straight and smooth sailing paths waiting for us to blithely waltz through. We often have to blaze our own trail and make the crooked straight and polish the rough and rugged until they become the burnished and gleaming paths we need them to be.
And sometimes, we might not even get the way to be fully bright and shining; we’d just have to make do, and press on, through the sharp rocks and the quicksand, the sleet and snow, the gale and the hail, the mist and the fog, the hills and valleys, the fire and the mire, and all other hindrances that may try to impede our journey.
Because sometimes, obstacles do not completely go away, regardless of our best efforts. We just need to focus on the mission, and press on, until we reach our destination.
Yes, we’ll arrive with bruises and calluses and scars, both visible and invisible, all testament to the troubles and triumphs that we’ve seen. But we’d have arrived! Gosh, we arrived!