I believe life is made up of choices…choices about the paths we will take as we live our lives each and every day. Some of the paths we choose are spiritual, some are physical, some are emotional, and in the end the paths we take define us. They define who we are, and they help each of us define who we will become.

This path is from a state park near our home, where we often go to take long walks…to clear our heads, find new perspectives, and walk out our worries. And as in real life, we often run into forks in the path. On this day, a day in mid-November, we chose the path on the left, the one we knew was longer, more intense, and would allow us more time to consider the future, and our particular place and responsibility to that future. We were thinking of our children and our grandchildren, and how we can leave them a world in which to thrive, while also being kind, generous, and tolerant. Yes, it was a long walk!

We walked this path at a nearby conservation area one very cold day last winter. As we looked at the footprints and paw prints of those who had come earlier, we were reminded that we are not the only ones to use this path…or indeed, any of the other paths along our life journey.

This is a path I walked with my daughter and granddaughter at a conservation area near Minneapolis. Our granddaughter could hardly wait to find out what we would find behind that bend in our path. As I looked with her youthful eyes, I was reminded to always look forward…to the future, to the surprises, to the magic of the journey.

Paths are an important part of our lives, may we never avoid venturing out onto them.

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