Footprints . . .

Note:  Recently I was re-reading my journal entries from my own 200 YTT many years ago and came across this memory.

This morning is my final morning in Hawaii so I decided to wake up before sunrise and walk the beach.  Because of the early hour, my footprints were the only tracks on the damp sand and my oceanside hike became a bit of a walking meditation due to the solitude.

At one point, I turned around to see my sole trail of footprints down the length of the beach. It occurred to me to try to walk back in my own steps rather than create a new set. So, I stepped into the first print, then the second, third, fourth . . . What should be easy, walking in a path you, yourself, created, was quite difficult. The stride seemed too long and inconsistent. The path seemed to slightly curve in unexpected directions. I found it nearly impossible just walking my own path.

If it is this difficult to even walk the same path you have walked, why do we even try to walk in someone else's prints? 

Additionally, if you live in each moment, you realize that the footprint you have just created is in the past, behind you and can never be traced again. The only prints you will be right for at the moment is the one you are currently imprinting in the sand. Likewise, you will never be able to create or recreate the print of someone else, no matter how much you want to follow their path.

So, embrace the footprint you are making at this very moment in your life. No one else will ever make it and you will never visit it again. Eventually, your footprints will be washed out by the tide, but they were once there, as were you.