Whatever You Do, Don't Look Down!

I went on a hike with one of my very good friends. Occasionally, he would stop and tell me that he was trying to work on not just going to the destination, but stopping along the way to enjoy the journey. Every time we stopped, I couldn't help but notice how beautiful everything around me was. We went to the top where we could see the continental divide and you could hear the rush of the water with no other sounds. You could see for miles upon miles. I was amazed with how beautiful everything was. Towards the end, I was becoming a bit exhausted with all the steep climbing we were doing. As I was thinking about my exhaustion, I noticed that I had been concentrating so hard on what I was doing, I had not been enjoying the experience as much while I was walking- I liked it more as I stopped. The previous hours were evidence that I was going much slower than my friend, but it finally hit me why I was going so much slower. My realization provided to me a visual representation of what I have been trying to work on lately:

Going up the mountain, I was slow and methodical to make sure I would not slip and fall. I needed to know where every rock was, where I should put my foot, how I should balance myself, and where I should put my hand. Though I was not constantly thinking "What if I fall?!," the entire time, I was constantly thinking about what I should be doing so I would not fall. Though I am sure much of that comes from how infrequently I have the opportunity to hike terrain like that, I realized that I did NOT have to look down the entire time. I talked with my friend a lot, but I did not look at him as frequently as I would have liked. 

Going down the mountain, I was so afraid about rolling down the mountain, I was using way more work than I needed. That is usually the enjoyable part, but instead I was constantly worrying about slipping. I realized that even if I did slip, I would laugh about it and move on. The fear OF falling made it so my experience was a little bit with-held.

Though is seems contradictory, our lives become so much more difficult when we over-think what we are doing. We slow ourselves down by making sure each step is perfect. It is as we learn to trust ourselves and God that we realize we are able to climb these boulders and we are able to know where to put our feet.

Perfectionism can be a horrible creature. It can be wonderful to motivate us to never stop trying and to remind us of who we have the potential to be: but it blinds us from the beauties that surround us right now. 

I am determined to take the courage to fall a little more often so that I can get everything out of this experience that I need to get out of this experience. We don't want to fill our lives with stupid mistakes that can be prevented; however, we should take courage in each step and not become so consumed in the dirt and the rocks when we have all this majesty around us.