We arrived in Fredericton, New Brunswick, in the afternoon, tired from riding in the car. A short distance from our motel we noticed a sign for a botanical garden. In late October, it seemed like a nice place to take a walk. It was part of a small park, with a baseball field, the garden and a small wooded area.
After parking, we decided to go into the woods first. There was no map, but it appeared that the trail through the woods would end up in the botanical garden near our car, so off we went.
The woods were beautiful with tall spruce trees interspersed with the last colored leaves of the season. The ground was bright with leaves that had already fallen. As we walked, the sounds of city life quieted. We heard squirrels scolding us as we walked along and birds chirping. It was so peaceful, so beguiling.
I kept looking for a path that went off to the left toward the botanical garden area, but our path just went straight ahead, so we kept walking. A voice in my ear (okay…it was Roger) started to question where we were. “Maybe we should turn back.” I looked back to see where we had come from and noticed that we had been walking slightly downhill. I really did NOT want to walk back up that hill through places we had already seen, so we continued forward. After half an hour or so we finally found a path to the left, but it certainly seemed like it was further than a path to the garden should have been. Still, it WAS headed left, so off we went. The voice to my side kept urging that we turn back, but I was determined, so we went forward, though the path was angling more and more sharply downhill.
The woods were still, very, very still. I could hear no traffic sounds at all. That seemed odd since the parking lot to the small botanical garden was near the corner of a busy intersection. This path should NOT be this long! The woods should NOT be this large! Where was the city that surrounded the small botanical garden? We had no choice but to go forward though the path veered more and more steeply downhill.
Then I had a thought. My cell phone would tell me where we were! That is when we realized that the small botanical garden, went on for blocks, with buildings only on the edges of it.
Resolutely, we listened to directions from the phone and eventually found our way out to a busy road. There we tried to figure out how to get back to the parking lot. I didn’t like what I was seeing. I didn’t like it one bit. The route back on that sidewalk of the busy road was about 2 miles long and it was up a very steep hill.
We had no choice but to climb the hill, of course. The downhill course through the woods that had seemed so easy was less appealing. Now we had to pay the price.
Eventually we made it back to our car, exhausted and sweaty.
Later, resting in our lovely air-conditioned room I started to think that this experience was so like our daily lives. Sometimes we stubbornly insist on doing things our own way rather than listening to the guidance of the Spirit.
I remembered a scripture from Proverbs, “Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”
When we listen and pay attention, our paths through life are easier and clearer to follow. We are less likely to get lost along the way. It was a good reminder.
(20 October 2018)
