Do you ever realize you learn lessons when you least expect it?
That was me. I was fortunate to spend a lot of time out in Mother Nature recently with my husband and 2 kids. We went on some adventures, on and off the beaten path.
Below are 5 lessons I learned from our adventures in Mother Nature. They serve as great reminders for me, and I hope you’ll find them useful as well!
Lesson #1 on Control
Do you ever try to control things that are simply beyond your control?
Me too.
I love hiking. I was so excited for our family to go on this hike in a beautiful park. At first, I picked a 13-mile hike, then settled on a 9.5-mile one.
Had we been hiking recently? Oh no. And we were bringing our dog with us. But, it was a “moderate” hike that should take us 3 hours so I figured we could do it. No big deal, right?
What was I thinking?
It was a beautiful sunny day, but hot and muggy. The first leg of the trail was amazing but difficult. Apparently the most difficult in the park. Whoops.
So, instead of hiking 9.5 miles, we did 5.5 miles. And it was amazing.
Lesson – let go of what you can’t control.
Lesson #2 on Stumbling
Do you ever stumble, even when you’re looking? It happens.
When hiking I prefer to pull up the rear in a group. I like to look around and check out the flowers, or any trees that interest me.
I also know to pay attention to what’s in front of you when hiking. Or more specifically, what’s in front of you on the ground!
On that 9.5 turned 5.5-mile hike, we were hiking along and I may have been looking up at the trees. The path was clear in front of me…I thought.
Then bam, I tripped.
I didn’t actually fall but it was one of those arms flailing “holy crap I think I’m going to fall” trips. The one where you catch yourself, stand up tall, look around to see who saw you, then look back to see what tripped you.
The culprit was a root sticking up maybe 2 inches. It took me a minute to find it because it was so small. Seriously.
Lesson – Sometimes the smallest things will make you stumble, but you pick yourself up and keep on going.
Lesson #3 on Patience
Patience is a virtue. We’ve all heard this. I tell my kids this! But dang it, impatience can get the best of us sometimes.
Some of our recent adventures required a slow, long drive on a seasonal 2-track road. It was really awesome, but sometimes I would get impatient to reach our goal, our destination.
I had to remind myself to enjoy the ride. When I did I saw the beauty around us and didn’t miss the otters that ran across the road.
Lesson – Be patient. Stop thinking of the destination and enjoy the journey.
Lesson #4 on Overthinking
Do you overthink? I can relate. I live in my head and am working on less thinking and more action.
Here’s an example. As I said we had to drive on these 2-track seasonal roads. In open areas, we saw many vehicles pulled over. People were in these fields looking for something.
What were they looking for? Man oh man, did we want to know! The thinking began…
Were they looking for gold? (Don’t ask me how this popped into our brains)
Maybe they were looking for mushrooms?
Were they doing something illegal?!
None of those.
They were looking for blueberries. Delicious, wild BLUEBERRIES! They were in season and everywhere! The answer was right in front of us, literally. We just had to stop thinking and look down.
Lesson – Don’t overthink it. Look at what’s in front of you.
Lesson #5 on Pausing
Sometimes we get so busy in our search for something. Maybe it’s how to improve on something, health-related, job-related, or just trying to get stuff done. We forget to slow down and pause.
We love to rock hunt! We drove to a secluded beach that was great for this and spent hours searching. But even walking along the beach, doing something I loved, I realized that I was so busy searching that I was missing out on the beauty around me.
So I paused, sat down, and listened to the water.
Lesson – Don’t miss out on the bigger picture. Take a pause.
What lessons have you learned lately? Comment below!
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