Tracks

Hiking in the park after a recent snow storm, one often comes upon tracks or footprints in the snow made by different critters. Birds, mice and chipmunks weigh only a few ounces and leave their skittering paw prints along the surface as they search for food. Deer create paths that cut across man made paths at different intervals. In certain parks one might be lucky to see coyote tracks if no domesticated dogs have yet arrived to confuse the patchwork of canine prints. It can be fun for kids to try to walk in the indentations made by others.

What kind of tracks do you make in the snow? What kind of tracks do you make in life? These may be illustrated in the decisions you make or in actions you take as well as in your behaviors and attitudes towards yourself and others. As time passes, days, weeks and months can seem as though they are blended together. Yet in each moment, in each day, you are creating a path, whether you are conscious of it or not.

How often do you stop to think about the tracks you are making, those you have taken and those you wish to take in the future? Significant events often provide a built in opportunity for self examination as life revolves around the immediate moment. It also can happen when you become aware of a child or new friend watching you closely, listening to your words and observing your behaviors towards yourself and others.

People leave their signature in the snow, boot prints of different shapes and sizes at different stride lengths. These markers give us information about the wearer of those boots not only through the size and/or speed at which they were moving along, but also in the tread design and model they chose to wear.

The same can be said about the information you leave behind as you move about in your life. I’m referring to the physical, intellectual, spiritual and emotional energy that contributes to your signature path. What does it tell you about yourself? What does it tell others about you? Is the “picture” you leave in your tracks an accurate depiction of how you want to represent yourself? What would change if you became more conscious more of the time? Do you feel you are making your own tracks or that life just seems to be steering you in directions you hadn’t planned on? If so, what needs to happen to for you to be back in the driver’s seat?

Thoughts to ponder on a cocooning kind of day.