Straight Talk from a Meandering Creek

When life doesn’t go the way we want it to, it can be helpful to be open to receiving wisdom and guidance from nature. It’s wisdom never ceases to amaze me.

Here’s an example:

A few weeks ago, my husband and I were on our way to check on the construction status of our new home. We make this trip often as we are ready to leave our temporary nomadic life behind and have a place to call home again. (We sold our home a few months ago and have been living in temporary accommodations while we wait).

As I was enjoying the now familiar scenery, I wondered why our new place is taking such a long time to be finished.

At that moment, I looked over at a small flat grassy clearing. As I looked more closely, I noticed a small creek tightly meandering through a section of the clearing. While looking at it I wondered why the creek took a weaving path rather than a straight path particularly given the topography.

The message came through right away.

“Sometimes the best path isn’t straight.”

I knew that message was not only to answer my question of why the creek took the path it did but also why the path of progress on our new home was taking a similar meandering path.

For the creek, a meandering path can result in less soil erosion, traverses hidden obstructions, provide better moisture distribution for the soil and plant life along its path and provide better volume control minimizing any flooding downstream.

For my husband and I, our own meandering path while frustrating at times has guided us to slow down and go with the flow, be more patient, live with less, and to understand there may be obstructions we are not aware of that are slowing down the progress. Our path has also reminded us of how thankful we are to live in a country and in a time where we have options, and last but not least…to enjoy the journey.

Now when I find myself getting impatient with the delay, I remember the message of wisdom from the creek.

How about you?

Nature has so much wisdom to share if we take the time to connect to it.

Do you look to nature for guidance? Have you had a time where you would have preferred a straight and fast path to what you wanted but instead your path was anything but straight?

I’d love to hear your story.

‘Til next time if you liked this, please social share it. Together we can help create a global mind shift.