Once again, a powerful lesson was taught to me just by quietly observing Mother Nature. I was sitting at my daughter's eighth grade promotion when a bug crawling on the floor caught my eye. It was busy scurrying to somewhere looking very determined to reach its destination. It then came upon the shoe of the person sitting next to me. It reacted in much the same way we often react when we hit a road block. The bug first stopped and sat for a moment and then tried to push through a few times as if the obstacle wasn't there. I then watched it step back as if to assess the situation and to my surprise, it turned right around and started marching straight back from where it came. Little did that bug know that if it tried going just a little to the left or just a little to the right, it would have easily gotten around the obstacle and continued on its journey. It chose however to go back to what was known and comfortable rather than chart out on a new course. How many of us do exactly the same thing when confronted with an obstacle in our life? Do we embrace it and look for the hidden opportunities or do we chose to retreat back into what feels safe and comfortable?
One thing that is guaranteed in life is that there will be obstacles to face. It is our choice to either chart a new course or retreat to safety. The opportunities are always there; we just need to have a willingness to open our hearts and minds to look for them within the obstacles. As this tiny little bug showed me, those opportunities are often just a little to the right or a just little to the left of our current path and require us to get outside our comfort zone to fully discover them.
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