Life and Tracks on The Trail

    One morning as I was running, I looked down and saw lots of tracks in the frozen mud and I became intrigued with figuring what type of animal each one was from. The problem was I spent too much energy looking down as I was still running and soon found myself hitting the ground.  As I picked up my pride and slowly went on my way I thought about the calamity around us right now with the COVID-19 pandemic. How it has changed our lives in just a few short weeks. Many times, I  have wished I did not have so many things on my plate, activities on my schedule or thought about what it would be like to live a little simpler life. It is not at all how I envisioned it, but POOF my wish was granted.  Now isolation, quarantined and social distancing become the words that are used to describe our lives.  

     Sure this whole thing is still scary and we need to follow the council we have been given to stop the spread of the virus, but we need to not let it consume us.  It is really hard to not join the crowd in panic when it in our faces. I have caught myself in those moments lately, hence the reason I now have a box full of flush-able wipes. Other than that panic moment, I have tried to remind myself to breathe, think realistically and most importantly keep the faith.

     After the recent earthquake in Utah, I found myself thinking about the statue of Moroni standing on top of the Salt Lake Temple with no trumpet and thought maybe this is a sign to drop the unnecessary things in our life, slow down and put extra effort in standing strong during these uncertain and as recently, literally shaky times.  It is also proof  if we stand firm and steadfast, we can be shaken and still be unmovable.  It is a time for reflection to look at who are we becoming and who will we be when we emerge from this.  

Such times invite us to look into our soul and see if we like what we see there.”

 —Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

 A few days later, I crossed that same frozen muddy trail that I had fallen down on.  I stopped to look up, enjoy the sunshine and thanked my Heavenly Father for the many blessings in my life.  Then slowly walked a short distance and took the time to notice the details in the animal tracks instead of running past them. A lot of them had become faded by bicycle tires (still pretty cool though).  

I thought of my body lying there on that frozen mud because I had been so caught up in what was going on around me. I pondered how important it is to be aware of our surrounding and what is going on around us, but to not let it bring us down. Even though we need to be cautious and careful we can find joy in life just as it is.  In due time we will be back to our busy lives, but right is the time to slow down, keep the faith, stand strong and find the good things in all of this.  Just like those tracks in the mud, I suddenly had faith that in time this pandemic will also fade. 

Stay Safe and Healthy!

XOXO

Tiffanee

 A couple of my favorite animal tracks I found.

Unload That Baggage

    One summer my middle daughter went on a backpacking trip.  She did not want to go, but her best friend talked her into going so she would not be alone. The girls would have to pack everything they would need up to camp and back out again. She felt with every step she was going to fall over and not be able to get back up. Long story short the weight did not propel her off the mountain as she predicted and she hated every minute of it. When she finished she immediately took the backpack off with the resolution she will never put it back on again. She said the weight of it almost killed her. She still to this day says it was the worst thing she has ever done in her life.  Looking this picture of  her and the back pack reminds me of how we carry emotional baggage around, only it is baggage we can't physically see.
    I know of a great group of friends that in high school car pooled to college. One day as they were walking to class, two of them decided to play a little prank on the other one. They carefully unzipped her backpack just a little and began filling it with rocks.  Adding them one at a time so that she would not notice the extra weight immediately. It wasn't until she got to class, took the backpack off and opened it up that she realized what they had done.  She later commented that she had started to fill like her backpack was getting heavier, but didn't think much of it at the time. This is how emotional baggage works, most of the time we do not realize the extra weight we are carrying until we finally take it off.
      Emotional baggage can be best be described as the hang-up's and self doubt that we carry over from our previous experience. It becomes a real detriment in our lives when we let being so scared of reliving the past that we let this baggage have power over our future. For example this happens pretty frequently when those things involve experiences from a previous relationship. It is a vicious cycle; we worry that someone will do the same things to us that a person did in the past, which enables us to not fully commit to a relationship and which makes it hard opening up to others. Any and all of these are signs of emotional baggage and all of this is based on past....so instead of getting rid of it we continue to pack it around.  These things can weigh us down and makes it seem like we are not good enough or worthy of love. The longer we cling to these ideas the more we start to believe them and it's like adding rocks to our backpack the weight keeps getting heavier.
      It is easy to let the past weigh us down and if we keep packing it around it does nothing but that..Hold us down, even if we don't notice it. I remember one time I let go of some emotional baggage I had been carrying for some time. Once I acknowledged it for what it was and that it no longer had power over me  I immediately felt like a literal weight had been lifted off of my shoulders.  It was amazing how different I felt.  Just like my friend when she noticed the rocks and took them out of her back pack it was no longer a weight or a burden I was carrying.

"Keeping baggage from the past will leave no room for happiness in the future" ~Wayne L. Misner

 With emotional baggage remember it is in the PAST and no matter how much you would like to, you CANNOT go back and change it. Figure out what baggage you are hanging on to, accept it, learn what you can from it and let it go. It is one of the best ways to lighten your emotional load.  Learn to live in the present. It will take time and effort, but will be so worth it. Just like my daughter and her backpack, unload that baggage with the resolve to never put it back on again.

xoxo

Tiffanee