Journey vs Destination

Journey.

Destination.

Who knew that soccer shin guards could be a climbing accessory?

In the era before Sweetpea's arrival, when English hubby and I would escape to the mountains or desert at the drop of a hat, with a roadtrip soundtrack playing on the stereo (CD's and cassettes, since the iPod was still a twinkle in someone's eye at Apple), when our hearts would lift the moment our car exited the county and we knew we were on our way somewhere anywhere, when some of our friends would shake their heads that we were always trying to get someplace else often after six or nine or twelve hour drives in a single weekend, we would go on long rambling hikes. Those hikes where English hubby would cheerily call back to me "we're almost there! it's just around that next bend/over that next hill/on top of that peak!". I stopped believing him eventually and would just get grumpy.

He wanted to attain the prize - the peak, the end of the trail, the killer view while I was happy to meander and watch and listen and stop for snacks and ultimately say "should we head back now?". We've both mellowed since then, not that we were ever particularly highly strung, and now on the more rare occasions when we hit the trails, sometimes I'm happy to get to the destination, and sometimes he is content to enjoy the ride without the ultimate prize.

Recently I've been struggling a bit with the journey. The routine. Get up, feed kid, make sure teeth are brushed, make lunches and snacks (so burnt on this), sit at computer, try to fit in a walk, look at list, ignore list, vacuum dust bunnies, do laundry, buy groceries, try not to make the same thing for dinner that we eat every night. It's wearing, no matter how many times I remind myself how grateful I am for the life I have.

Another blogger recently talked about choice, and how it's up to us to choose to want to do it. All of it - the chores and lunches and what do we have for dinner. And it was a good reminder (I tend to need a lot of those, I should just have post-its all over the house). To feel happy that these are things I can offer to my family, an act of love, that the alarm clock at 6:30 is a choice I want to make.

Journey AND Destination. I'm trying to embrace them both.

A hike in the distant past,
when hubby had time to take a gazillion pictures
and then composite them all together when we got home.

“Focus on the journey, not the destination.
Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.”
-Greg Anderson

(I think there is a place for both)