Are You Embracing The Mud?

The other day, my friend and I decided to try out a new hiking trail.

I was so excited. I even got new hiking shoes.

When we got to the mountain, we just couldn’t find any signs for the trail we wanted to take, so we decided to take “the road less traveled”.

The “road” we chose turned out to not be a path at all and… it was full of mud.

I was trying everything possible to not get my new shoes dirty. I was jumping over the mud, tip-toeing over branches and practically doing the splits to cross puddles.

But…the inevitable happened.

Not only did my brand new shoes get covered in mud, I was now knee-deep in mud! The new shoes I’d tried so hard to protect were soaked in mud inside and out.

Let’s just say, I didn’t feel very sexy. I didn’t have so much as a towel to clean myself up, let alone the change of clothes I desperately felt I needed.

I decided to stop trying so hard to avoid it, and fully step right into it instead.

It was so much fun. It was liberating! I actually started enjoying my hike so much more now that I was focusing on the whole experience, and I was able to hike at a much faster pace.

It made me realize…how many times do we have unforeseen circumstances in our path that we choose to either avoid or view as unpleasant? How often do we let those things interfere with our enjoyment?

What if we start making a different choice? What if we choose to face the unforeseen and possibly unpleasant circumstances head on AND embrace them?

What if we choose to see them as things that could work FOR us and not against us? When we choose to embrace whatever comes on our path, and to see it as something that could actually work for us, we open ourselves up to so many new experiences and possibilities.

On this hiking trip, I decided that from now on I will always choose to embrace the mud. I feel It makes life so much more fun.

Will you choose to embrace the mud?