I am very behind on my scavenger hunts, but this is my attempt to catch up! I don’t want to quit.
Pathway has been a difficult one for me. It seems simple enough, but in full character I have made it more difficult than it needs to be! I get stuck with an idea or an image and have to fulfill it, but when that fails I am lost.
I started out in one of the oldest pathways I could remember… it was back in my elementary school days at Whittier in Fircrest. I remembering racing out to the trees during recess in order to get the best one! The one with a big root at the bottom of the trunk. We would line a path of rocks to it and sweep away the dirt with a fir branch… we would set up home their with neighboring trees being set up the same way. I loved playing house.
When I went to visit that “forest” I hoped to see the tree I was so fond of and recreate the pathway of rocks, but it has changed. It is now completely fenced off and where there was dirt is now the start of grass. I couldn’t even find my memory. I left disappointed.
So, I continued. I traveled the same path I did many times as a child, to the park below the school, to the park down the street that I frequented in the summertime. The pool, then the Rec Center and all the way to my childhood home. The trees are much bigger than I remember and the fern I planted in the front yard in 4th grade was almost as tall as me. I continued to the back alley, but it was overgrown and hardly looked recognizable… and I didn’t want a picture.
The trail leading from my old back yard to the swamp is now grown over. I used to love going to the swamp. I always brought friends there, but I think most thought it was boring. I thought it was peaceful.
As I drove home I started to feel even more disappointed. Disappointed that the pathways I remember were not only not there, but some just left me feeling, well, feeling bad. I have always been an optimistic person but I have to admit the last 4 years have taken a toll on me and I lost some of that. I wonder if I will ever gain it back. I try… before it was natural… but I will continue to try until it once again is as it should be, natural.
I passed a few pathways I notice quite often and have wanted to use in photos, but really, they hold nothing special to me. In fact, I really couldn’t find a special pathway at all. I decided that I was going to take a picture of a path leading nowhere… not a good attitude, I know. Please forgive me.
I didn’t tell Joe for days. I was feeling sad and disappointed. We all have days like that, right? I told Joe about being behind on my hunts and the reason why I was. Not only can I use the excuse that I was busy… there was more than that. I was also down… I knew what the next couple of challenges were and well, I went down a spiral and all seemed to land on the not so positive side for each one of them, so then they just piled up, since I didn’t want to post what I had written.
Sorry I got to that point. I believe that we all do, some can admit it openly and others hold it inside, as I did for many years. Let’s face it, being vulnerable is no fun and can actually be quite damaging if it falls into the wrong hands. There is a lot of trust involved.
When I finally admitted to Joe why I was so behind in my hunts, he immediately got in the car, told me to grab my camera and he helped me get my shots.
He took me to that swamp I told you about, the one behind my childhood home. We took a different path to get there, but it was still the same swamp, the path may have changed and the area around the swamp may be different, but everything changes and this is what the path looks like now. The images are not too exciting, but that’s what I have.
The path ahead to the swamp…
The path behind, where I came from…
We continued to take pictures of each hunt I had missed and he helped me to lift my head up and go forward with confidence that even when we are having bad days, there is good to be found. That ones who read will understand and they will appreciate they are not alone in their struggles of daily life.
Thank you for being on the journey with me… it’s going to be a long one
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Next Challenge: Work.
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