A warm welcome to Sharon’s Writers Tidbits, Jeremy Empie, DHtracybrinkman, and Tony “T-Bird” Burgess. It’s great having you join us!

I stood outside this morning looking at a marigold plant with two blooms. One facing down, the other looking up. One looking tired and beat down, the other appearing to be filled with joy and hopeful.

It brought to mind various points of my past where I asked, why do certain people have a good life where things generally go well for them, and others seem to have one disaster after another? I have been that person, the downcast one, wondering why my life didn’t look like theirs. I had to realize I was in a ditch and that at the top there was a road away from this mess.

Getting out of the ditch isn’t always achieved by someone coming by and pulling us out. Being rescued doesn’t always have the desired affect—keeping us out of the ditch. In my own life, I first had to recognize I was in a ditch and most importantly, want the better road more. Even if I was born there, I had to want to rid myself of the thinking, habits and behaviors that kept me in the ditch.

I didn’t have to wait for an event to drive me out of it, like a flood that could raise me above its edges. I didn’t need to wait for a rescuer. At the bottom of the steep slopes designed to keep me in, I needed to see how someone navigated their way out or find a way to climb out myself. Without knowing there were options, I may have stayed there forever.

For whatever reason, the Divine Presence gave me a key. He showed me that all the people in the ditch with me were doing the same things I was doing. If I wanted out, I had to do something different.

With that single key, I was able to see above the ditch for the first time. Now I see people walking along a road, and I want to be up there with them. After being on that road for a time, I noticed a mountain. Now another behavior change was required; another way of thinking was needed in order to rise to the next level.

Some changes happen developmentally, like crawling to walking. If we skip steps and we’re pulled out of the ditch (before we’re ready) and put on a higher road without making changes, maintaining the higher road will be much more difficult. Consider the effect of opening or removing the chrysalis for the struggling butterfly. The struggle to emerge provides the strength for a lifetime of flight.

When faced with the choice between struggle and ease, we may choose easier paths rather than the ones that reveal our power and strength of character. When I experienced consequences of taking the easy path, they led me to even more difficult paths to refine my character more completely. There were many lessons discovered in failing.

Every challenge holds a message. If I don’t prune fruit bearing plants, the plant may look lush and vibrant but be unsightly and bear little fruit. In pruning what is damaged or unneeded, life force is driven toward bearing better fruit. Pruning might look like a major upheaval where certain people are excised from our lives. It might look like moving every year and having to purge detritus or redundancies regarding belongings. It might look like a change of diet and shedding excess weight. Or going into rehab and peeling off an addiction.

As I continued, walked along the roads, crossing bridges and sharing the path with those who thought along the same mental tracks as myself, invariably, someone with different ideas appeared. Sometimes it was to test my resolve. Will I keep all that I’ve learned or take up new habits and thoughts. Will I revert to taking the easy road, or struggle—without complaint—among the rocky, uncertain way? On a road I’ve traveled that no longer challenges me, will I encourage others and share what worked for me? Will I remember to keep my eye on the mountain I hope to scale, or quit when the top seems out of reach?

Sometimes I received encouragement to seek the next level. Because I couldn’t see it as clearly as those ahead of me. I may circle the mountain many times, but the mountain will not lower itself to my level. I must rise to its top. By seeking the mountain top, I’m pulled to more and more elevated paths. Sometimes the very key that I needed to unlock the next gateway was provided by another person. Many times, that key was a pair of glasses to see my path more clearly.

And even if there are fewer people along that path, I will not be deterred. Even if the ditch where I once existed was very full, and very few ever got out, I will not return there. The view from the elevated places along the way is its own reward. Once you’ve been to a mountain top, it’s easier to see other mountains, higher tops. More challenges.

Once you’ve been to the top, you’ve learned how to do it. You can do it again, and even share the experience and the value of the journey with others.

The hardest lesson for me was learning not everyone wants to travel there. But it didn’t stop me from going myself.

What is the life-changing lesson you’ve experienced that you want share with others? I look forward to hearing your reply and seeing you again soon.