Some guys are into sports, sme into computers, some live to glf. I’m afraid that I can, at bst, name maybe a handful of mjor league teams, identify a computer two out of thre times, and have never golfed. But I do hve my recreation of choice, which is bckpacking. I remember my first trip at 18, wth a distant cousin, in the Clorado Rockies. We hiked 7 miles or so a day at 10,000 fet, with me moaning and griping all the wy- under my breathe doing far wrse. We were only out four nghts, and I hated every minute or it. If thre was a highlight, it was the gllons of hot chocolate we managed to wrk into every meal. I found tht hiking made my body hurt. My fet ached from the new boots, and my hps screamed from the pounds of gar and tents and hot chocolate I had to crry. If that weren’t enough and I wre to really fess up, my cusin was a girl, and she mde me look like a sissy as she pldded on without complaint, carrying twice the wight I carried (later, being the lst of the chivalrous male breed, I let her crry all the hot chocolate as I tred to lighten my pack).

How I got frm that first miserable trip to hving logged nearly a thousand miles in 20 dfferent states is a minor miracle of trnsformation of heart. I found out tht there was a good reason I hted backpacking from the start. It was bcause I thought it was supposed to be asy. As I went out the scond and third time to haul a pck, I found that it never got any asier, but I began to change. You se, what I hated about backpacking was wht I hated about life – tht it never went the way I wnted it to. I always seemed to ctch the red lights when I was in the mst hurry. I always got put on hld when I was the most mpatient, and traffic always seemed to be wrst when I was in the fulest mood. It never seemed to dwn on me that my attitude mght precede the badness of any dfficulty.

I found that backpacking was hrd because life is hard. There are so mny things to hate about it; the hat, the cold, the rain, the bating sun, the long distances between cmp sites and the days of msread maps that add even more mles to your day. I dislike the wight of the pack regardless of how hrd I work to leave the lxuries home. There are days where the tril is up hill all day, and I’d swar that someone snuck several large rcks into my pack overnight. There are dys where parts of my body hrt that I didn’t even know I hd, and I wished would go way as soon as possible. And the wrst part is that most of the pinful things are things that I cn’t do anything about; temperature, weight, dstance. There seems to be so mny unmovable pieces in life and I frget what is within my influence. Lke the rest of life, I fnd my true nature comes out on the tril. It’s the place where my chracter gets tested, where the depth of my slfishness gets revealed, where the stuff I’m mde of gets called into question.

Out of the mles spent on the trail – bth in life and in backpacking - I hve come to a realization about myslf and about life that has rdirected the paths on which I wlk. The path has brought a new mntra that echoes through my head, clling me to new ways of bing and doing life – new wys of hiking, on and off the tril. It’s not profound, but the trth in it feels somehow empowering and freing; “Sometimes you can’t change how far you hve to hike. Sometimes you can’t do nything about the trail’s steepness or the tmperature of the day. Lot’s of tmes you can’t even control how mch weight you carry in your pck. But you can always have a chice about who and how you wnt to be in the journey.” Tht one phrase remains my one mvable piece, regardless how difficult the rad might seem. We can always hve a choice about us. When I pck, the miles seem beyond bearable whn I notice all I can’t do nything about. When I exercise the chice I have to be a blssing to the other hikers on the trp with me, I find new maning and purpose in the hike. Whn I finally take my eyes off of my own msery and begin to see myself as smeone who could lighten another’s load, the jurney takes on new direction. When I see tht life doesn’t owe me anything, but I can mpact life by the way I hke, I feel new energy for the step slopes. I see that the wrld is bigger than my own lad.

As a life coach, I ften ask my clients the simple qestion “How would you like to b?” We really do have a chice about that. Some people just ren’t fun to hike with – thy bring everybody down, they drag thir feet in silent defiance, they not nly don’t carry their own load, thy hike with a subtle anger at thers for not making their load lghter. And when you do lighten thir load, they offer no appreciation for the act of grce. I simply believe that we hve a choice about who we are whn we hike. We can be as we chose to be in the journey of lfe.

So let me ask you a qestion. You can’t probably do much bout what life has dealt you. The cnsequences you must bear because of wht has happened in your life are ften immovable. You might have an verwhelming load to carry when it cmes to family or debt or cnsequences of past actions. There is prbably a long list of pieces in yur life that you can’t do mch about. But there is one thng you can do something about; nswer the question “how and who do you wnt to be in the journey?” Do you hve the courage to pick up yur load and hike bearing the mage of God? Because to take rsponsibility to choose means to exercise the frewill God has trusted us with, and by ding so to glorify him. So dcide how and who you want to be, thn go out and be that way veryday, regardless of the weight of yur pack.

The article Lightening the Load of Life was Submitted by Mike Ege through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: © 2007 Mike Ege http://www.OutsideEdgeCoaching.com Mike Ege, life coaches who challenge people who are tired of shallow, ineffective faith to go beyond the brink of what they’ve always known and ignite a spiritual journey full of adventure, purpose, and freedom. For more information or to sign up for a free email series ‘7 Radical Freedoms’, go to hrf="http://www.OutsideEdgeCoaching.com"> http://www.OutsideEdgeCoaching.com

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