Bear with me for a moment.
Imagine you’re standing at the bank of a deep, fast-flowing river.
Behind you is where you’ve come from – a steep hill down to the now-flooded, green fields below.
It’s clear a serious storm has been through; branches have fallen, leaves are all over the place. A few trees have snapped in half, and there are puddles and mud and debris everywhere.
You can see the path you trekked up the hill, zig-zagging around obstacles and problems. It was a damned hard climb, with delays and backtracking and unpleasant surprises.
But now here you are, clear of the storm and the debris, standing on this riverbank. Hands on your hips, with sore knees and sweaty clothes, you look over to the other side of the river.
Where you see a great big green expanse, untouched by the storm.
It’s not perfect – there’s a bit of mess here and there, some things you’ll need to be aware of – but it looks a lot better than what’s behind you.
The only thing between where you’ve been and where you want to go is that river.
But it’s deep, and moving swiftly. You’re worried the water would wash you away if you took a wrong step or – worse – fell in.
You’re nervous about what to do and, frankly, not sure you can get across.
Luckily, you find yourself in front of a couple of dozen rocks, all the way across the water.
You could, easily, hop along these rocks to get to the other side.
But you have no idea which ones are secure, which ones you can land on safely.
Some of them might tip as soon you step on them, dumping you into the white water churning past. Others might be slippery, and you could lose your footing.
It’s Your Choice
You have a choice now, standing on the bank.
You can move forward, or you can stay where you are. You can’t go back, there’s nothing for you there.
That choice is yours and you need to make it in your own time and for your own reasons.
Where we come in is when you’ve decided you want to cross the river.
Because we know the way across, we’ve crossed here often.
We know which stones are safe, which ones you can’t rely on, which ones aren’t worth your time.
Now, in our practice, we guide our clients across the stones, standing next to them, pointing out the stones, holding their hand for as long as they need us to.
This series will be something quite different.
My goal with these posts is to tell you where the stones are, or to paint them so that they’re easier for you to find.
To give you the map to follow.
After all, not everyone needs a guide – sometimes a map will do just fine.
