…That I don’t mind trudging the road of happy destiny?
I figure I’ll get more accomplished if I do.
So what brought this on? Well… the most common sense path for me towards happiness is the knowledge that my life is a classroom. I have always been a student with a desire to retain and excel. On the days that I am learning, growing, achieving and creating I am alive and the “trudging” is nowhere near noticeable. On the days that I am stagnant or held back it becomes obvious that I am potentially “stuck in the mud.”
That would be what I define as “trudging.” An arduous and difficult slower moving progression towards a goal or destination. Right?
I have always had this image of trudging as a chore. I picture thick mud and army boots trying to push through and sometimes becoming stuck. This, to me, is an obvious image of struggle and hardship that “trudge” would seem to paint. But then I ask myself why trudging should be a negative? Life is a path we walk through. Hopefully the path is clear more than it is not. Definitely there are forks in our road and sometimes there are complete blocks or detours. But no matter what it is that happens to us on the journey we are proceeding in some direction. Each direction is for a purpose and every step is a guided and important lesson to something that has been or will be… IF we are paying attention.
Some days the classroom gives me clear direction and the path is brightly lit. I know where I am going and I am rather happy to be making that journey. It seems obvious and positive and obvious can provide a sense of accomplishment, faith, incentive and sometimes a touch of adrenalin. These are the days where the happiness goal is not one that would need to be sought…. why seek when you are already there? Wouldn’t that mean one was not living in the moment (often a stellar recipe for the happiness goal in and of itself…)?
So it is the days when the conscious or unconscious mind is telling me that I am NOT happy that I am finding myself looking up a darker and slightly more confusing path. I will step cautiously and guide my way through weeds and subterfuge because I want to make my way back to that happily lit path that is most comfortable. THIS could be a defined moment of “trudging” as well as many other scenarios… losses of faith or feelings of depression or that aforementioned stagnancy that tends to tell a tired mind that there is nothing that can be done.
But sometimes that trudging can be the most productive of my growth periods. Sometimes it is the best and most prolific sort of classroom. Who said that life was easy? Who said the path would be that gorgeous yellow brick road? Why wouldn’t the challenges and stop signs that inhabit and line every path out there be the places that I can learn the most.
Then it occurred to me… that this is exactly what has happened for me in many of my previous chapters. Each time the path got difficult and the journey felt like the boots were stuck in the mud… I found myself in re-direction and change that only helped to guide me towards the better direction on the path. Invariably I found my yellow brick road once again and each time there was different and better scenery to look at. It has become obvious to me that my path evolves as much as I allow myself to evolve. What I see as the destination today may not necessarily be the best place for me to go. If I allow myself the willingness to stop and review from time to time… taking in all the signs and messages that I see and hear along the way I am going to realize that the destination is revealed, like puzzle pieces or a treasure hunt… slowly and in their own time.
So although I would hardly say that I am in the mud these days… (although I am also not currently wearing the comfortable fluffy slippers either) I am doing a bit of trudging as I realize that I am in a place in my path where some destination options are starting to reveal themselves. I don’t see them all yet but I know they are there. For me it is important to make sure that I wait until everything at this juncture is in full view and then evaluate for as long as it is necessary to make the choice of which extension on the path to follow.
And there are no “wrong” choices. Just consequences to decisions… both good and bad.
Whatever the path will provide I am excited and genuinely electric about the possibility. Trudging or gliding effortlessly I am here for the ride and the lessons that will accompany.
Be Happy. Be Well. Be.