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Peace be with you.

Welcome to a new week!

Today’s message is brought to you by my nature walks.

I bet you thought I was going to name a sponsor. Nope! Not for this podcast. (If YouTube shows an ad, that wasn’t my doing).

No, one of the ways I keep a positive mindset is by walking in nature – without headphones – just listening to the birds in the trees, the geese in the pond, frogs, breezes, and so on. I try to walk at least two miles several days a week for my physical and mental health, and I’m lucky enough to live in a neighborhood out in the country, with a gravel road across from us that passes over a duck hole and between farms.

In fact, if you’re listening to this podcast on YouTube, go check out my “Sound up for Nature!” shorts, and you’ll see 15 to 30-second videos showing where I walk.

Strolling  without earbuds or headphones means you’re listening to nature and your own thoughts. It’s a great way to clear your head and work through ideas or problems that you’re wrestling with.

I was looking down the gravel road, considering the old saying, “This too shall pass,” and had the following thought. Here it is raw and unedited:

Life is full of twists and turns, hills and valleys, and more twists and turns. If we're on a straight, level path all of our lives, how boring would that be? I mean, seriously, if it weren't for the twists and turns, we'd never have a chance to learn, to grow, to have new experiences, to meet new people. Life's about growing. Life is about experiences. Life is about learning. Life is about love. Embrace your twists and turns.

That’s it! Two-thirds of the way through a three-mile walk, I reminded myself that changes of direction and personal plot twists are exactly what life is about. Very few people are born, live, and die without drama, challenges, and difficulties scattered throughout their lives. Rich or poor, unknown or famous, uneducated or Ph.D., we all have moments of moving smoothly through life interrupted by the unexpected.

Maybe it’s an illness, job loss, car accident, or the end of a relationship. At 52, I’ve been through all of it, and of course, in those moments, facing those challenges are difficult, but I’ve gotten through every single one, and each has shown me the people who care the most, the lessons I still need to learn, and most importantly, that I’m more resilient than I ever thought I could be.

Why? Because I’ve learned to embrace my twists and turns.

I do believe everything happens for a reason, and usually that reason is to teach a lesson about life, people, relationships, money – you name it. If it can be a source of stress, there’s a lesson in it.

And really, what IS the point of life if we aren’t learning? We’re here to learn to be better people, to learn to help each other whenever we can, and to learn forgiveness and unconditional love.

You can’t become a better person if you don’t realize your own shortcomings.

You can’t help others if life goes smoothly for everyone around you.

You can’t learn forgiveness if there’s nothing to forgive.

You can’t learn unconditional love if everyone you encounter is perfection incarnate.

Lucky for us, nobody is perfect, people will mess up, circumstances are always changing, and this, too shall pass – all on the twisty road of life.

My challenge to you this week is to recognize the twists as they happen and ask yourself, “What can I learn from this?” 

Because embracing twists and turns makes you a more resilient human.

Go forth and hug a curve!

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