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When being on track is being lost…

I was out walking again today, and as ever, it taught me a few things of broader application.  The number of times today that we were happily marching along a clear, straight path, and according to our plan, we were meant to proceeding along a straight path… so no problem, right?  Wrong!  Sometimes, and in fact several times today, the straight path on the map was not same as the one we were walking along.  Knowing when to turn to stay on track is a skill that is very useful.

Another time we were marching along, I was confident that I knew exactly were we were and I saw a road “What is that doing there?” I asked, “There is no road on the map…”   Of course, we weren’t where I thought I was, and I should have seen the road and asked “Where are we really?”   It is so easy to assume that you are where you wish you where, rather than taking account of the evidence before you. 

Despite this little catalogue of minor navigational glitches today, we continued to adjust what we did and had a wonderful walk in beautiful November sunlight; as the sun is so low in the sky now, it produces wonderful gentle and contrasting tones.  Sometimes we need to remember our higher purpose, and today it was simply to be somewhere lovely and get some exercise; my original route was merely one way to do this, and not necessarily the best one.

Having a plan, and working that plan and reaching your goal are not always the same things.  Remembering why you are doing what you are doing is the key to successful navigation and much else….

“Oh, my ways are strange ways and new ways and old ways, And deep ways and steep ways and high ways and low, I’m at home and at ease on a track that I know not, And restless and lost on a road that I know”    Henry Lawson

 

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This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 25th, 2009 at 16:44 and is filed under Business Change, General, Personal Change. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

2 Responses to “When being on track is being lost…”

  1. Tom Law says:
    26 November , 2009 at 08:54

    Like yourself, I go for walks in the forest, maybe two or three times a week. Living here for 12 years now, that must be more than a thousand times I’ve been in the forest around my house. It’s a big forest, about 20 kilometers long, but no more than four or five wide, being hemmed in on two sides by major roads. So you can go rambling without too much fear of getting seriously lost.

    The brilliant thing is that the forest is never the same. Seasons change everything. The place seems different in winter. Sometimes there’s fog or rain.

    Sometimes I do get turned around. I usually follow paths, but there are hundreds. The paths also change — trees fall and block some. It’s a working forest too and sometimes there’s small scale cutting, which changes certain pockets.

    When I’m turned around, and want to get back, I head in one direction and wait ’till I find a familiar place. Sometimes I’ll come upon a place I’ve been hundreds of times and not recognize it because I’ve approached it from a different angle than normally.

    Sometimes my eyes are on the forest floor, looking for mushrooms. Sometimes my head is in the clouds. Sometimes the forest is filled with birds. There are woodpeckers in spring. I’ve come across deer in the winter.

    The forest is a living and changing organism.

    Tom Law

  2. richardderwentcooke says:
    26 November , 2009 at 08:57

    Thanks for sharing all this Tom… I can really relate to what you say

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