THE LADYBUG

The other day I went to the track to run.  The sun was just dipping below the tree line, and the air still held the heat from the day.

My knee still isn't 100%, so I did sprints back and forth on the cushioned track.

After my last sprint, I was bent over with my hands on my knees to catch my breath and noticed a little ladybug trekking across the track to get to the grass on the other side.

She had made it to the middle of the track and was moving steadily along, up and down the rough terrain.

What seemed like a smooth, cushioned surface for me to run on was actually filled with mountains and caverns, upon microscopic inspection.

I watched her for a few minutes and wondered if she knew how much farther she had to go.

For me, I could see the span of her journey from beginning to end and knew she was halfway there.  But she could have no idea.  Even the high points would not be able to give her the vantage point she needed to see how far she had come or where she was going.

She just kept moving.

I dropped my hand to her.  She blindly climbed onto my finger, not knowing if it would be her salvation or her demise.  I then walked the two steps to the grass and let her climb down onto a blade of grass.  She quickly disappeared.


I'd like to think I helped her in some way to complete her journey and that she understood the assistance.

Could she ever really know, though, how much danger she had been in walking across a busy track with feet pounding over her route?

Would she have even wanted to know?

It made me think how we're not all that different from this ladybug.  We aren't able to see the full picture, to truly see how far we've come and where we're going.  We just keep moving in the general direction of forward and hope that we make it to the other side.

The "right" answer constantly eludes us.  Should we keep plodding along on our way or venture onto a new path?  Either way, if we stay constant or take a new opportunity, we are still blind to what the outcome will be.

Years from now, though, we'll be able to look at our journey from beginning to end.  We'll see how all those decisions and long walks across rough terrains got us to where we are.  How each decision was not just "good" or "bad", but that it did transform us and our part in the world.

We'll actually be able to take our eyes off the road and look around us to appreciate the intricacies of everything we couldn't see before.

And best of all, we'll  finally understand the point of it all.  How our life, this journey fits into everything else.

We'll be like I was that day, seeing the big picture, the road the little ladybug was on, and knowing there was a beautiful sunset shining down on this little ladybug's path even though she never looked up to see where the light was coming from that illuminated her journey.    

**********************************************************************************

I'm linking up with Meg's Mingle Monday link up today.  Stop by to meet some new blog friends.