Traveling Along the Trail of Life Through Nature

This morning, I successfully completed the Spring term of my first year in graduate school. This was no small feat due to four hospitalizations, bouts of dystonic spasms and stuttering, psychotic episodes, an episode of catatonia and being diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder and PTSD. The obstacles that I faced this semester were beyond difficult. It is a great relief to know that I have finished for the year.

In order to celebrate the completion of this semester, I went to the lake.

As you can see, today is a beautiful day at the lake.

After being at the lake for awhile, I decided to go on nature walks by the museum, something I have wanted to do all semester. I decided to be adventurous and walk the trails without a map so that I could get the full feel of not knowing where I was going and just to enjoy walking through nature.

As I walked, I realized how much walking through the nature trails is like life in general. So I decided to take photos during my walk to capture what the trails were teaching me.

Sometimes in life, we look beyond 

and we wonder how we will get through the obstacles in our way...

Sometimes we struggle to distinguish the path we should take from our surroundings 

and this creates confusion.

Sometimes we look ahead and our future looks bright,

but there still is something right in front of us that looks like a roadblock.

Sometimes we can see the path we should take,

but it looks like our surroundings are going to cave in on us,

like our life is going to fall apart.

We look ahead and the path looks very windy,

and we do not know when the next twist or turn in our life will occur,

but we continue to walk forward.

Sometimes in life, we look ahead

and it looks like we've gotten off the path,

so we step back onto the path and keep walking.

Sometimes our life looks very crooked,

maybe we said or did the wrong thing

and now everything looks chaotic and tilted.

Sometimes in life, a fog causes our view of the path to be blurry.

We do not know where to go, who to turn to, what to do,

but we continue to move forward,

attempting to alleviate the blurriness and confusion.

When we get past the point of confusion,

we realize that we are on a clear path,

still with its twists and turns,

but we bravely keep walking forward.

We keep walking and then we see a future bend in the path,

and we do not know where it will lead,

but we keep moving forward,

trusting that there is something great beyond the turn,

trusting in God's plan for our lives.

We may come to a clearing,

and we see the obstacles on the sides of the path,

and we choose to stay on the road

not looking from side to side

but focused on the future that we have in God.

But nothing is perfect on this earth,

so you see obstacles directly on the path.

The road ahead looks rough and unmanageable.

God helps you to step over the obstacles,

to rise above the storms of life.

Even though the road ahead looks dark and chaotic,

you keep walking and moving forward,

trusting in God.

You see right ahead of you a giant obstacle.

You look around for solutions,

but you're stuck.

But with God's help,

you move forward

and again, you go through the obstacle

and rise above

and keep walking forward.

 Even though this path called life

is riddled with obstacles,

you always move forward...

By going through the obstacles in life

and moving forward,

you learn to enjoy the little things in life

and to appreciate the beauty in the mundane.

You learn to live.