Today we had one of those detours that turns into a memory.
We parked at the wrong beach. We could have taken the easier option, and got back in the car to drive to the other beach, but instead we decided to walk across the rocks to get to the other side. I usually look up, but the rocks were slippery and I had to focus intently on looking down to keep my footing in wet shoes. One foot in front of the other, each step revealing something new. Black rocks, probably millions of years old, with deep grooves which get deeper each year. Bright green sea grass, soft and feathery but still somehow tough enough to withstand the ocean. Sea grapes, interconnected. Clusters of tiny black clams. As we walked, my daughter said, "mum, we are walking on the sea floor". And she was right. At some points during the day or night this path that we were walking is most likely hidden from view. If you arrived here in that moment, it would be all ocean. This view would not exist, and you would neither be able, nor realize it was possible, to cross to the other side. I stopped and looked up, and I realized that sometimes it's actually in the detours that we find the paths. At some points in your life they're hidden from view; and you probably have to get there at exactly the right moment to be able to see them. Not just the right moment for the path to show itself to you... It also has to be the right moment for you to be willing to see and then take what initially seems like the harder route. Someone said to me today that the conventional path I was on no longer exists for me, and she was right. It's now all about the detour. So I might have to look down sometimes to get to my destination across the rocks. I will have to focus intently on what's in front of me until I find my way there. I will have to recognize the right moment to cross, and I will have to be willing to risk losing my footing and possibly fall. But I know now what I never knew before. The detour can be defining.
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AuthorFiona is a writer, consultant to government and not for profits and former cynic turned yogi. Archives
June 2017
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