Your Eyes In The Journey

For Thursday May 24^th on Gather Writing Essential we were given the challenge to create a post about storms on our journeys.

The journey has been long and hard when the sky opens up like a gift from the heavens a warm rain fills the sky and you look up thankful for the refreshing from above.

The wind picks up and the rain turns cold hitting you hard in the face. As you push against the wind and the rain you look down protecting your eyes. You focus just a little ways ahead of you making sure that you stay on the path not being pulled away from your reason for being on the journey. It is necessary to be ever vigilant. This is not the time to be slack or to be careless.

Hail comes down hard enough to hurt you as you walk. To keep going you cover your head and focus your eyes just a little ahead of your feet never losing sight of the path ahead. You ignore your discomfort knowing that it is critical to keep your eyes on your goal since your feet will always follow your eyes. You want to stop and find shelter but you know that it is not the time to stop even for a moment because the end of your journey is so important to you.

Hail comes down hard enough to hurt you as you walk. To keep going you cover your head and focus your eyes just a little ahead of your feet never losing sight of the path ahead. You ignore your discomfort knowing that it is critical to keep your eyes on your goal since your feet will always follow your eyes. You want to stop and find shelter but you know that it is not the time to stop even for a moment because the end of your journey is so important to you.

As the air becomes colder the next storm brings heavy snow. It quickly becomes deep enough for you to have to look down, looking for the footsteps of others who have gone before you so that you can keep on the trail of your journey. Without those footsteps to follow you could quickly get off of the trail and be lost perhaps to never find your way back to the trail again.

The snow turns to icy rain and your path become frozen, harmful at the very least and potentially deadly. You take the time to see where the best possible safest part to walk in the trail is. Keeping your eyes always on the path looking side to side you walk extra carefully, slowly choosing each step before you make it. This is not the time to be careless. A fall could mean a long delay or even the end of your journey before you reach your goal.

The weather becomes warmer and a fierce lightning storm along with heavy rain overtakes you. Just ahead of you lightning hits and brings down a huge tree that blocks your path. Your eyes are on the barrier you walk to the left and then to the right. It looks too high to climb over. This is a monster tree. You walk left and you walk right again ever looking for a way around it or maybe even though it. As you walk to the right you notice a way through the tree. When the tree landed it broke in two. There is a space about three feet wide and you walk through it.

The stormy weather just won’t leave and hangs on for some days. The further you walk the muddier the path the more difficult it is to walk. You try to see through the rain as far down the path as you can. It doesn’t look good the path looks bad. Based upon what you see the path is too hard to continue so you must seek shelter for awhile. You see a little cabin a little ways off of the trail. You enter it. Someone left enough wood to build a fire and some food. You wait until you see that that the trail looks good enough to continue your journey.

As get back on your journey very quickly clouds gather again and a steady cold drizzle begins. The drizzle doesn’t let up for so many days. You begin to feel achy but you cannot stop. Next you develop a chill and then your nose becomes stuffed. Sneezing fools your nose being stuffed and then you begin to cough. You feel worse and worse. It is not easy to see because you are sneezing so often but between sneezes you see a lady walking close to you in the other direction. You greet her and then you sneeze. She asks if you are alright, you nod no ask her if she is a nurse. She tells you that she is a doctor. You ask for her help. She gladly gives it to you. You are told to rest but thanks to you seeing that kind doctor you don’t need to rest long. Very soon you are feeling well enough to continue your journey.

Your journey now goes through a period of sunshine, light fluffy clouds at a comfortable temperature. You have time to reflect on all of the storms that you have lived through. You remember that each storm required your eyes to be focused on different parts of your journey. You think back on the worst of the storms and you remember that when you made it through them the best was when you focused your goal the most. You remember that there were times when it was necessary to stop rest or wait on your journey but that it was OK as long as you never lost sight of your goal. You think of how that when you were facing storms your eyes were sometimes up, sometimes down, sometimes back and forth but that that the only real constant was always seeing the goal. You realize how important your eyes are when facing storms on your journey, that it isn’t just keeping your eyes on your goal; it is seeing danger, shelter, and help, even where to place you feet. You want to never take your sight for granted.