Well-Worn Path
Deeper through observation
"Inspiration is always a surprising visitor."
― John O'Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
Photo by Amy Hoppock- A Pause to See
As the days lengthen, I've been able to return to something I love, early morning runs. Over the winter, I didn't run on our treadmill and even wondered if I was still a runner. But the cool, early morning light was an invitation I couldn't refuse, and I've found myself most mornings pulling on my running shoes. I use to be a dedicated listener to podcasts. But this running season, I'm listening to fewer podcasts and listening to the birds, my breathing, and the rhythmic thump of each foot hitting the ground.
One morning this week, I was thinking about the well-worn path. The path is hard-pressed dirt. It's where we all walk, run and progress forward towards the goal of miles run or to a destination. The well-worn path offers one way to experience the mountain or the creek.
On either side of the narrow, well-worn path is dirt in substance no different from the well-worth path. Grass grows in that dirt. With minimal effort, I could dig into the soil and make a hole or use the toe of my shoe to kick a mound of earth. On the well-worn path, the effort required to break the surface would be much more significant.
As I pondered the well-worn path, I started to think how the path was like my heart. I have the well-worn paths of how I react and respond to the events and people in my life. In many cases, the pathways and well-worn hard-pressed. It would be unthinkable to change my reaction as it would be frowned upon to wander off the well-worn running and hiking paths I frequent.
The well-worn paths are as they are because they represent the best path, the path of least resistance. I wondered how often the well-worn paths of my heart are the path of least resistance. Would another reaction be more helpful?
I was explaining my morning run to a friend who is in the middle of a profound transformation. The well-worn paths stopped working. Through a courageous journey, something new is emerging. We talked about when the well-worn paths stopped working and how hard it is to create new pathways. Well-worn paths don't happen overnight. They exist because they are used over and over and over again. The path is neutral. It's not good or bad. It's where the paths take us that can become a blessing or a source of pain.
I've thought a lot about pathways this week. I've been asking myself what ways in my heart (reactions, habits, beliefs, etc.) are serving me well and what pathways I find myself in without thought, and it leads to unhealthy or not helpful places.
Somehow thinking about habits as pathways shines a new light where I’m able to see things differently. Just a small shift can make a big difference.
Photo by Amy Hoppock - The Well Worn Path
Deeper- It was just a path and simple thoughts on a run. It became more profound when I stopped with the idea and shared the ponderings. Is there a simple idea or observation from walking, cooking, reading that has been on your mind? Pause with it this week. Share it this week (the comments here would be a great place to start...)
Books I’m reading, have read, or can’t stop thinking about.
Currently Reading:
Pride & Prejudice by Jane Austen
I know. Shockingly, I call myself a reader, and this is my first Jane Austen. I have no excuse. I loved this book. It was witty. It was smart. It was funny. (I wasn't expecting it to be funny, but I laughed out loud often because of how witty and intelligent it was!) It was written in the late 1700s, and the observations on human character and flaws are spot on today as they ever have been. I can see why people read it over and over. I know I'll reread it.
A Book I Can't Stop Thinking About:
The War That Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley
My kids and I read this a few months ago. We still talk about Ada. It's the story of Ada and her brother Jamie, evacuated from London at the start of WWII because of the threats of bombing. Ada had a club foot that her mother (a very unkind woman) had left untreated. Ada had no memory of leaving the upstairs room where she lived with her brother and mother. She was left alone for hours each day, and despite her mother's meanness, she learned to walk. Her mother was content to let Ada languish and crawl around locked in a small room. Ada and Jaimie end up in the home of Susan and her pony, Butter. Ada's life is saved and changed through the love and kindness of Susan. This is a children's book, so it's easy to read. It's fantastic. We loved this book and the follow-up book, The War I Finally Won. Ada will grab your heart and not let go. (It also was the book that started an obsession with WWII books for me.)
ideas.poems.quotes.songs that sparkled for me this week.
(I try and pay attention to words or phrases that stand out to me in my reading and listening. There is a spiritual practice called Florliledgium that collects short, interesting pieces {words that “sparkle” up} and put them together. This is kind of like that. Watching for things that sparkle. Gathering them and seeing how they work together and what message, mantra, or new idea might arise.)
A Practice:
Read slowly.
Notice if a word or phrase stands out to you.
How do the words make you feel?
Is there an invitation?
(I’m sharing in italics the lines that stand out to me in these passages. Maybe it’s the same, or maybe it’s different, there is much food for thought in each of these passages)
“We are not consumers. For most of humanity’s existence, we were makers, not consumers: we made our clothes, shelter, and education, we hunted and gathered our food.
We are not addicts. “I propose that most addictions come from our surrendering our real powers, that is, our powers of creativity.” We are not passive couch potatoes either. “It is not the essence of humans to be passive. We are players. We are actors on many stages…. We are curious, we are yearning to wonder, we are longing to be amazed… to be excited, to be enthusiastic, to be expressive. In short to be alive.” We are also not cogs in a machine. To be so would be to give up our personal freedoms so as to not upset The Machine, whatever that machine is. Creativity keeps us creating the life we wish to live and advancing humanity’s purpose as well.”
― Matthew Fox, Creativity
"Sometimes the simplest and best use of our will is to drop it all and just walk out from under everything that is covering us, even if only for an hour or so—just walk out from under the webs we've spun, the tasks we've assumed, the problems we have to solve. They'll be there when we get back, and maybe some of them will fall apart without our worry to hold them up."
― Mark Nepo, The Book of Awakening: Having the Life You Want by Being Present to the Life You Have
“Vanity and pride are different things, though the words are often used synonymously. A person may be proud without being vain. Pride relates more to our opinion of ourselves, vanity to what we would have others think of us.”
― Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice
"The only way to become whole is to put our arms lovingly around -everything- we know ourselves to be: self-serving and generous, spiteful and compassionate, cowardly and courageous, treacherous and trustworthy. We must be able to say to ourselves and to the world at large, "I am -all of the above." If we can't embrace the whole of who we are--embrace it with transformative love--we'll imprison the creative energies hidden in our own shadows and be unable to engage creatively with the world's complex mix of shadow and light."
― Parker J. Palmer, On the Brink of Everything: Grace, Gravity, and Getting Old
Ahhh, I love the way you think, write, create. Thank you for all you do to take us deeper, all the while keeping it simple sister 😘
🙏🏽🙏🏼🙏🙏🏿