It’s funny how we all grow up with certain ideas about ourselves and about the world. These ideas often have no basis in reality, but we assume they’re real, because they’re convenient and simple. For example, I’m not a hiking person. Ask anyone--ask me, if you want, and I’ll tell you some people are hiking people, and some people, like me, are not.
If you’re not a hiking person, and you tell someone you’re about to go with the family on a 3 mile hike up a hill, their answer will always be the same: “You?!”
Because you’ve created this identity, and your identity makes sense. And this identity you’ve created helps you and others make sense of the world.
But what if it’s not true? What if you suddenly discover that climbing up a hill while holding your kids’ hands makes total sense to you? What if you love nothing more than letting your girl choose the paths you will all use on the hike, and your boy navigate the trail with a map?
Maybe an identity crisis can be a positive thing.
Now, I don’t know if we’ll end up hiking once a week this spring/summer, like we said we would when winter started. Sometimes it's too easy to stay home and say, “It’s OK. We’re not hiking people anyway.” But we’ll try again soon. It's good for the soul, this whole nature thing.
