The other week, my husband asked me if I wanted to go hiking. I like to take long walks and it was a beautiful day, I was really excited to get to spend some time together and just relax and have a nice conversation while enjoying the great outdoors.
We arrived at the park and grabbed our water bottle and started down the trail. The temperature was perfect, its still early enough in the season where the bugs are very minimal, and the air was refreshing and the sun was warm. We took the trail down by the river and we stopped and looked out over how pretty it was and how serene it was to find a rippling stream along our relaxing journey.
We stopped momentarily and as I was ready to head back to the trail, my husband stated that the river was our trail. My initial thought was, right...I agreed to hiking, not this! He informed me that this was hiking. I decided I needed further clarification in the future for what was quickly becoming a miscommunication for our relaxing saturday. What my husband failed to remember, or maybe in the newness of our marriage, never got told, was that I am extremely terrified of rivers, ponds, lakes, oceans--pretty much any body of water that I can not see the bottom of and that I do not know what else is living within.
I think the disappointment for the day was mutual as I tried to be a trooper for the most part, but had my momentary breakdowns as I tried to jump from rock to rock and imagining every worse case scenario in my head. We got to the end of the stream (aka ravaging river in my mind) and I thought to myself, okay, you did it, now back to the trail. Well, the stream led to what became boulders and huge rocks covered with limbs and moss that was an adventure lover's dream leading to a waterfall, but was this girls worst nightmare. My poor husband was amazing as he was very comforting and encouraging and held my hand every rock of the way. He would leap from rock to rock a twinkle in his eye and then look at me to follow, only my eyes were filled with tears (which the sunglasses hid, however, the glasses did not cover the sobs) and I thought for sure I was just going to die right there in the middle of a rock, left to be eaten by rabid squirrels.
The waterfall was amazing and breath taking, maybe because of the minor panic attacks I had earlier, but either way it was pretty spectacular to see something in nature that wasn't man made. After the waterfall though it was time to go back--yep, back to the "trails." The boulder were still horrific to me but when we reached the river I had this new sense of 'I am woman hear me roar' about me. The little rocks along the river didn't seem so scary and I had this new determination to tackle them after having tackled the other monster rocks. I got done and felt this huge sense of accomplishment.
This experience made me think of life and the battles and trials we face each and every day. I wonder how many rivers and streams I've tackled, jumping over rocks and trying to find my footing, tears falling along the way, telling myself that I can't do it; only then to find that there are even bigger obstacles and bigger rocks to climb, slipper surfaces to grip, and bigger sobs to control.
I think God gives us little battles to build us up for the larger battles of life so that after we get done with the larger battles we can go back and realize that the smaller ones were nothing we couldn't handle and that we actually find strength in adversity. I think of the obstacles I thought were road blocks back in my younger years and now laugh at my frustrations as I see they pale in comparison to what you face as an adult. I know this will be the case in every period of my life as I look back and laugh at how hard I thought something was or how I saw a boulder when in actuality it was a speed bump. God knows that we have to be trained, conditioned, loved along the way to face each battle so that we can laugh and so that we can realize that we are more capable then we give ourselves credit for.
So at the end of our adventure we decided to clear up some miscommunications and decided that relaxing and hiking meant two different things to us. I will always have that adventure to remember, but I think he's on his own for any future river rock excursions.
We arrived at the park and grabbed our water bottle and started down the trail. The temperature was perfect, its still early enough in the season where the bugs are very minimal, and the air was refreshing and the sun was warm. We took the trail down by the river and we stopped and looked out over how pretty it was and how serene it was to find a rippling stream along our relaxing journey.
We stopped momentarily and as I was ready to head back to the trail, my husband stated that the river was our trail. My initial thought was, right...I agreed to hiking, not this! He informed me that this was hiking. I decided I needed further clarification in the future for what was quickly becoming a miscommunication for our relaxing saturday. What my husband failed to remember, or maybe in the newness of our marriage, never got told, was that I am extremely terrified of rivers, ponds, lakes, oceans--pretty much any body of water that I can not see the bottom of and that I do not know what else is living within.
I think the disappointment for the day was mutual as I tried to be a trooper for the most part, but had my momentary breakdowns as I tried to jump from rock to rock and imagining every worse case scenario in my head. We got to the end of the stream (aka ravaging river in my mind) and I thought to myself, okay, you did it, now back to the trail. Well, the stream led to what became boulders and huge rocks covered with limbs and moss that was an adventure lover's dream leading to a waterfall, but was this girls worst nightmare. My poor husband was amazing as he was very comforting and encouraging and held my hand every rock of the way. He would leap from rock to rock a twinkle in his eye and then look at me to follow, only my eyes were filled with tears (which the sunglasses hid, however, the glasses did not cover the sobs) and I thought for sure I was just going to die right there in the middle of a rock, left to be eaten by rabid squirrels.
The waterfall was amazing and breath taking, maybe because of the minor panic attacks I had earlier, but either way it was pretty spectacular to see something in nature that wasn't man made. After the waterfall though it was time to go back--yep, back to the "trails." The boulder were still horrific to me but when we reached the river I had this new sense of 'I am woman hear me roar' about me. The little rocks along the river didn't seem so scary and I had this new determination to tackle them after having tackled the other monster rocks. I got done and felt this huge sense of accomplishment.
This experience made me think of life and the battles and trials we face each and every day. I wonder how many rivers and streams I've tackled, jumping over rocks and trying to find my footing, tears falling along the way, telling myself that I can't do it; only then to find that there are even bigger obstacles and bigger rocks to climb, slipper surfaces to grip, and bigger sobs to control.
I think God gives us little battles to build us up for the larger battles of life so that after we get done with the larger battles we can go back and realize that the smaller ones were nothing we couldn't handle and that we actually find strength in adversity. I think of the obstacles I thought were road blocks back in my younger years and now laugh at my frustrations as I see they pale in comparison to what you face as an adult. I know this will be the case in every period of my life as I look back and laugh at how hard I thought something was or how I saw a boulder when in actuality it was a speed bump. God knows that we have to be trained, conditioned, loved along the way to face each battle so that we can laugh and so that we can realize that we are more capable then we give ourselves credit for.
So at the end of our adventure we decided to clear up some miscommunications and decided that relaxing and hiking meant two different things to us. I will always have that adventure to remember, but I think he's on his own for any future river rock excursions.
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| The Goal |
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| Conquered the Rocks and My Fears |
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| "Hiking" |
