The gift (and pain) of rejection

The title of this brief post feels more serious than it really is. Let me explain…

We had just eaten a yummy lunch and were heading out on the final leg of today’s walk. All was going well, the weather app told us to expect some rain, but it seemed pretty mild. Then out of nowhere the wind started howling, like scary, there’s about to some kind of mini tornado howling. We backtracked quickly to a shelter.

We figured this was how the weather was going to be for the rest of the afternoon so I tried to get a Bolt (equivalent of Uber over here). I tried twice. And twice we got rejected. No driver could be found!

So, the weather settled some, it still rained and was quite windy, but manageable and we decided to keep going.

The gift of this rejection…

We got to see some awfully cute goats!!

The pain of this rejection… walking the full remaining distance to the hotel in the wind and rain. My feet by the time we completed the 12.7 miles today were hurting so badly.

Our plan was a maximum of 9 miles per day! So this was far in excess of expectations 😳. I was visualizing a magic carpet swooping in to float me to the destination. Sadly, one did not arrive 🤣.

The final 3 miles or so I was repeating a mantra as I walked… my version of “be still and know that I am God.”

“Walk and know that love is all you need.”

Each mantra, 9 steps, kept me moving forward today!

What mantra or prayer keeps you going when you want to give up on a hard task?