Navigating New Territory

The thing about hiking in new territory is that even if the destination is visible from one's current vantage point, the route there isn't. There are no telling what twists and turns, slopes and ravines, rushing rivers, wild animals, or non-negotiable dead ends lie between here and there. We may start out with one course in mind, but from the next vantage point realize that we must adjust course radically in order to ultimately reach our desired destination. Such adjustments can feel like set-backs or a failure to accurately chart the initial course. In fact, though, we are encountering the simple realities of foreign terrain, which by its very nature is an on-going learning experience. The failure would be not to learn and adjust. That our actual path was not the one we had first set out on or hoped to have traveled must remain secondary to our determination to reach our destination.