Some of our Challenges in Life

By Sara Jane

Your life is your story, it is your journey and it has, I am sure, been filled with many different experiences; some happy, some sad, others challenging or exciting, testing or trying – I have no doubt there are other words you can find to describe them.

We think of mountains as something to climb and cliffs as something you can fall off, unless you are a rock climber, then cliffs are great for that.

May I ask you to think about your story so far. Think about the challenges you have experienced and overcome.

The challenges that felt like a sheer cliff face with difficult to see foot holes, that you had to take the first step up before the second became visible.

Some of those experience may have been a little scary but they were great fun.

One of these for me was being part of an expedition to Romania to work with the Carpathian Large Carnivore Project to track Wolves and Lynx (not kill).

It was really scary, I didn’t know anyone else in the group and I wasn’t sure what to expect but it was amazing, I will never forget it.

Others may have been much more challenging, maybe situations in work or with family of friends, almost climbing blindfold but you did it.

Then there are those experiences that felt more like you were on a cliff edge with nowhere else to go, you could stay where you were or jump.

Staying where you were wasn’t an option, it certainly wasn’t for me when I finished my second marriage, I had to jump and it started a chain of synchronistic events that changed my life beyond anything I could ever have imagined.

Can you see things in your life, can you look back and see where you took action, you took on the cliff, either at the top or the bottom and beat it.

I love this poem and I am sure many of you have heard it before and I share it here for you as a reminder that although we may be given “cliffs” in our lives, we do have the courage and the means within us to conquer them.

“Come to the edge,” he said.
“We can’t, we’re afraid!” they responded.
“Come to the edge,” he said.
“We can’t, We will fall!” they responded.
“Come to the edge,” he said.
And so they came.
And he pushed them.
And they flew.”

― Guillaume Apollinaire

If you would like to listen to this blog, you can hear Sara read it in the video below.