In a world with asphalt-covered roads leading to any number of opportunities and options, we decided to take a family walk on a secluded trail.
The story is anticlimactic if you only look at the chain of events:
- Family goes on a walk.
- They take pup on his first real hike.
- All hands, feet, and paws joyfully participate in wading, exploring, and removing of ticks in the sunset.
- Family went home, cleaned up, and went to bed.
- The end.
But what’s in the story? I’ve begun living my life by this question. Instead of looking at a series of events that make up an experience, I think about the story behind those events. Why did those events that made up a story make me feel the way that they did? That requires digging a little. Here’s a bit of my takeaway from our nature hike.
That walk with the family was so much more than ninety minutes in nature. It was a time of renewing for me. It was my childhood relived – little girl me connecting with grown-up me, recalling the names of the plants I brushed arms with as a child before leaving them behind as I traveled a couple hundred paved roads toward opportunities, learning, and growth. It was “mama me” watching my children experience the pleasures that come with wading down a creek bed to see what awaits them around the bend. It was recalling my own memories of my childhood dog making my adventures through the woods richer by chasing a new pup.
In my year of RE, I’ve chosen to dedicate June to renewing. What I’ve learned in the first half of that month is this:
To renew is to return to that which I’ve always loved with a new lens of gratitude.
It doesn’t mean trying to live in the past. Rather, it requires me getting out and truly being present in the here and now. I can’t go into autopilot mode. I have to choose to do something. The reward is the feeling of renewal. I can see what I once had and value it more because of what I’ve experienced since the last time I encountered it.
Renewing is a beautiful thing, but just like every action I’ve added to RE, it means I have to show initiative to discover its elegance. In this case, that elegance was to remember that life has many roads that are worth the journey, but sometimes it’s important to have a renewed appreciation for a path that reminds me of the places from which I’ve come.
That is what is in my story of renewal. For today, anyway. There are many more stories to be discovered and written. I hope you are enjoying your own stories, my friends! Keep finding the beauty in June.