[Nevertheless] We Strive

My goal is it hike once a week, if not more - to complete fifty-two hikes in a year.

My goal during Lent is usually to blog every day of Lent - to complete forty blogs during the forty days (not including Sundays). 

The thing I like about goals, is that they are just that - goals. They are something to strive toward, something nice to attain, but not diminished if I don't reach them in the time allotted, or at all. There is more value in the doing, the working toward the goal, than in the moment the goal is reached. 

If I fall short in my posting goal for Lent, it doesn't at all take away from the posts I did post, from the processing of life that I did along the way, from the time I took to do something that nourishes my soul. If I only hike forty hikes this year, it doesn't take away from the benefits to my body and my spirit, it doesn't negate time spent with family and friends. 

Fourteen weeks into the year, we took our eleventh hike. This doesn't mean we're behind by three hikes. It simply means we've gone on eleven hikes. 

This hike was a last minute I-need-to-get-out-of-the-house kind of hike. We chose a spot close to home, an easy two mile hike, as I was feeling more under the weather than usual. It was a glorious, sunny, sixty-something degree day - perfect for spending some time in the woods.

Alia joined us on our hike. I love being able to see the world through a child's eyes. She saw the beauty in the flowers and vibrant green leaves of newly sprung skunk cabbage, which I tend to overlook, considering skunk cabbage little more than a nuisance. 

She reveled in the enormity of an old tree. 

She was fascinated by the symphony of different varieties of frogs.

And she took photos of our new friend Bob Ross, the painted turtle.

And of Jim and I on this hiking adventure.

She took the time to study and appreciate what nature had to offer us on that day, and the people with whom she was spending her time.

She didn't appreciate the bridge that was in need of repair or the array of wild turkey feathers on the other side, although she did share with us that whatever ate the turkey was on a vegetarian diet - it only ate vegetarians.

When the hike was done, she was drawn to the beautiful graffiti on the side of a building near the parking area, appreciating the artist's work and excited to have her picture taken.

It was just another in a string of hikes we will take this year - just another step toward reaching our goal, nevertheless, that doesn't detract from the value or pulchritude of the experience.