Tag: adversity

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Going at Least Halfway

On By Michael FlemingIn ParentingLeave a comment

Close to Lake St. Peter in Hastings County, there’s a hiking trail leading to a beautiful lookout. It is not a long trail (about 2.5 km), but it is described as “strenuous,” crossing “rugged terrain.”

The first day, my 11-year-old daughter and I didn’t even make it halfway.

The next day, I said, “Let’s try the hike again.”

“Dad, no! It’s uphill the entire hike! I don’t want to go hiking.”

I put out my hand, palm up. “Put your finger on my palm. Now move up.” My daughter puts her finger gently on my palm and then raises her finger in the air.

“Now, if you had to get back to my hand, which way would you go? See, it’s impossible to keep going up. It can’t be uphill the whole way. I think if we can make it to the halfway point of the hike, the rest will be easy.”

I convinced her.

That day, we completed the hike. It was strenuous for her, but we experienced the beautiful lookout at the halfway point. And, sure enough, the second half was downhill.

In life, you need to cross rugged terrain sometimes. It can be hard. But you need to go at least halfway to find beauty. And you never know, it may be all downhill from there.

A Short Piece of Writing on the Storm

On By Michael FlemingIn Learning and Growth, Poetry, SpiritualityLeave a comment

We find ourselves navigating difficult times. For some, the waters are new. For others, the waters are new, yet the waves are familiar.

There’s a storm, starboard side. Our ship sails amok.

For some, there’s an albatross. For others, there’s a stern where they are calm and asleep, and they dream, and they are not afraid. For some, there is literature and poetry. And when we write, we are relaxed in the stern. And when we read, we read this:

When adversity threatens to paralyze us, we need to reassert control by finding a new direction in which to invest psychic energy, a direction that lies outside the reach of external forces. When every aspiration is frustrated, a person still must seek a meaningful goal around which to organize the self. Then, even though that person is objectively a slave, subjectively he is free.
Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

And we are free.