Views From A Vet's Wife: My Journey- Part 9

The Beginning and the End….

I’m about to end “My Journey” series and get back to regular blogging. Most of these past posts had been written during the journey. I write things for 2 reasons: 1. To see where I’ve been and 2. To see what God is doing. If you don’t write things down right away your perspective tends to get skewd. You may look back and remember an event differently- this can be good or bad. However, if you write things down right away you can look back and see exactly where God has taken you. This journey has reminded me a little of skiing….

A few years back, Matt and I went with my sister and her friend on a ski trip to Breckenridge. This was definitely one of the best trips we have ever taken! If you know anything about skiing, you know that the slopes are ranked in levels of difficulty by colors. Green circles are for beginners, Blue squares for intermediate, Black diamonds for advanced and Double Diamond Black for expert. Matt, Cass and I preferred the Blues. These were just challenging enough, yet still well within our comfort level. As we looked at the map we found a mountain full of blue slopes! The only problem was that it was several mountains over and there wasn’t an easy way of getting there from where our condo was. So we mapped out a route from the mountain we were at to the mountain we wanted to get to. This meant we had to go up several lifts, then down certain paths to another lift, then back up, back down, back up, back down….

I’d say realistically it took us the better part of the morning to reach our destination. When we did get there, we had a blast and skied all over that mountain! But here’s what I learned along the way…

1. Enjoy the journey

*The 3 of us had such a great time getting to our destination. We laughed, we stopped to take pictures, we saw gorgeous scenery and just really enjoyed the time together. We were determined to reach our destination, yes, but we weren’t so impatient that we missed things along the way.

2. There will be bumps

*I don’t know if we made wrong turns or just looked at our map wrong or what happened, but a few times we ended up on some black diamonds. This meant that there were moguls (bumpy things that you ski around… or in my case bounce over all the way because I couldn’t turn my skis), there were steep parts and honestly just places that we didn’t really want to be. Of course we made it through, but these were serious times! We had to be careful and watch out for each other too.

3. Learn from others/Others will learn from you

*During the black diamond sections I remember being stopped and watching other skiers. I was trying to see how they would handle the situation and what my next move should be. Also, during our trek over to the other mountain we learned from each other… we took turns leading and following. We gave each other tips (like “Matt, don’t go through the trees, that’s stupid” J ) But there is nothing wrong with learning from others and you also never know when someone is looking at your situation and learning from you.

4. The end is worth it

*Like I said, once we got to the mountain of our choosing, we had a blast! We went up and down several times and really enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.

So… what does this have to do with now? Well, Matt and I are on a new journey. One that, so far, has seemed very bumpy to me and not super exciting. But it doesn’t matter because God has a plan and there is truly beauty all around. Just like skiing, the mountains were gorgeous from the bottom (if you are sure to keep your eyes focused up) and the views were amazing from the top (you see everywhere you’ve been, dangers you missed, and beauty that can only be seen from the top). The easy slopes made times fun and carefree, the hard slopes gave us a feeling of accomplishment and the drive to keep going. The entire journey is always worth it. That’s what I’m learning about this move too… I may not understand it, but it’s not forever, it’s just another path in life that we must take to get to our final destination… That destination, of course, being heaven with Jesus… because that is the ultimate joy and hope in life.

So there you go! My journey is not over (but my series is)… Just as a reminder of some amazing beauty from God, here are some pics from our trip a few years back.

Me and Cass

**Sidenote: One of the days we skied it was -7 degrees, that's why you can't see any part of our face!