We Do Not Know The Path Another Treads
Ioanna warned us on Sunday about the most venomous snake on the island… ‘It is very small and black’ she said…
Yesterday as I stood chatting by the roadside with Nikos, he said ‘Keep an eye out for the snakes, they are all waking up now…’
When we were in Thailand we were strongly advised by the locals to carry a stick to ward of monkeys, and to tap the ground in front of us, so that snakes ‘leg it’ as Anadi said!
And so today as we approached the mountainside of Mount Pantokrator, Anadi found a long stick…
My plan was a twelve mile run, knowing that going on the mountainous terrain we would be out for much longer than a ‘regular 12’ would take…
We set off with plenty of time as I had a facetime session at midday….
It was a beautiful bright clear Corfu spring morning… We ran uphill for three miles, through Spartilas reaching the pathway that leads up the side of the mountain…
Anadi lead the way banging the ground as he went; we travelled in relaxed fashion; we had lots of time and I was keen to just get more ‘time on the legs…’ I have always responded really well to miles and miles and miles, a lot of it very easy and with a low heart rate…
We clambered up the rocky side and then reached the sandy stony track… “Why don’t we follow this to the road and run back down the road ‘I said – it seemed a good idea.
I anticipated the path would take us to the winding road we had begun our run on….
We saw the red dots of the triathlon course… The red dots and arrows seemed a ‘tried and tested’ route, and a trustworthy one…
“You and your red dots’ Anadi commented … When we got lost in the mountains of Morocco I became very attached to following the red dots on rocky tracks and trails on the mountain side as they leant me some (false it transpired) sense of security… ‘The tried and tested route’ security; when in truth they lead us so far from the path that we were hopelessly lost for twelve hours…
Following the path of others can have that effect..!
Tried and tested routes in life can be very useful and exactly what we need at times… but only if they resonate for us…
Otherwise we can follow the ‘red dots’ of someone else’s idea or philosophies or doctrines or advice, and find ourselves hopelessly lost; sometimes for a lot longer than 12 hours…
It is vital that we check in and discover what resonates; whether that is when reading a book or listening to another person… There is much we can learn and gain, share and discover from one another, but it is important that we all tread our own path…
We do not know the path another treads; so this is the same if we are offering something to another, in the form of advice or an idea or a suggestion… even if this is something that would truly help them; or us, if the suggestion is being offered to us… If we are working something out, we may need to go round a familiar loop a few times to learn for ourselves….!
We all work things out in our own way and our own time…
But today we did follow the red arrows as we were pretty confident we were following a route we travelled the other way round in the half marathon last September… and we were…
However it had taken us a long time, two hours to cover around eight miles… and once we reached the road we were a lot further up it than I was originally anticipating… We had about nine miles to run and just enough time to run it in!
Thank goodness it was down the mountain….
I raced back up the steps to Stefanos place at five to twelve, having run an unintentional 17 miles…
I towelled down, mixed up some protein drink, changed my clothes and appeared in my Facetime office…!