I really wanted to write something uplifting and inspiring this week. I wanted to be a shining light and encouraging.
Well, I always want to be that, but some weeks are just not the kind of weeks that bring out the “yippee” in a person. Then, I thought about Sunday this week. Doug and I went out for a little hike. For us, it’s become a little hike, but part way through, this hike it became more than just a hike. We had decided to do a trail that we have done lots of times. The start of the trail is 457 stairs, called The Coquitlam Crunch, then it moves into an incline, slow and steady, then it moves into hills and plateaus until we get to the place we call the Radio Tower and turn around and go back down. It is 10 km round trip and takes us about 2 hours.
Part way up our trip we met another hiker. She was new to the trail, so asked for directions and we were glad to help. We invited her to join us and she did. She was new to our little neighbourhood, as a matter of fact she was new to the province. We walked and talked and really had a nice visit as we went. We shared local shops we liked, parks to visit, trails to go on and really enjoyed talking with her. When we got home, it started me thinking about what it was like when we started out on that trail. Oh boy, how things have changed.
When we first started out on this particular trail, the 457 stairs were not there. It was just a steep gravel path. Wide and not as busy as it is now. The gravel slid under our feet, it was so steep, it was hard. The very first time I tried this trail, I was out of breath before the official beginning. I stopped so many times. Then for a while instead of stopping, I even walked up backwards a little so that I kept moving but used opposing muscles trying anything to get to the top without stopping. Each time I did this trail, I was sore for days.
Until this weekend, I hadn’t thought about how hard it was when we started.
As we have kept going on our journey, the pain in the beginning has apparently faded. We have been able to move past barely surviving the “Crunch”, to adding an additional 8 km to our little trip and we actually call it a short little trip to the Radio Tower.
I am not telling you this little story for any other reason than, sometimes we need to look back at where we came from, now and then. Life always just moves on, some people say with or without us but it really is in spite of us. Most of us will be blessed to see another birthday this year. And I can guess that if we look back just one year, things have happened that we didn’t plan. Great things happened and bad things happened too.
But here we are.
● So where do you want to be on this day next year?
● Do you want to be at the bottom of the 457 stairs looking up?
● Do you want to be at the top feeling like you have conquered that hill?
● Are you looking to add a few more km to your trip.
You get to decide. Because if you are blessed, you will see this day next year and again look back.
For us, as well as adding the extra hike to our ‘Crunch’, we now sometimes only do the stairs. Yup, we are officially crazy but if time is short we will do multiple sets of the stairs. We can actually do 5 sets of stairs which is about 3.5km in 40 min. This would have been impossible not that long ago.
So, today is Day 1. Find your ‘Crunch’, and start up those stairs. We will be cheering you on at step 1, km 1, run 1, until day 2. On that day, we start again. You Can Do It!!
Though no one can go back and make a brand new start, anyone can start from now and make a brand new ending. – Carl Bard
