Rocks and Hard Places

“Sounds like you’re between a rock and a hard place.”

These words ran through my head this morning as I walked along the road by my house. It’s summer time, and as I walk lizards baking in the sun scurry away into the bushes. Wild flowers are in full bloom and I marvel at all the plants growing between the cracks of a rock on a cliff face. I even spotted a pine tree with its small but sturdy trunk prying the rock apart.

When I moved here, I knew nothing about mountains. I would gaze up from the valley to see houses that were perched high up and wonder how the builders knew it wasn’t going to just fall off in the next slight shift of the earth beneath it. Then over the years, I learned that tree roots helped to prevent landslides. In the winter when it snowed the trees would act to naturally break up the snow so that it did not accumulate and cause a large-scale avalanche that would crush the township below.

I found it fascinating that something as tough as a mountain was actually supported by the trees that grow on it. It’s not exactly an easy way of life for the trees that must crush the rocks with their root system to embed themselves and survive. But how many of us have woken up every single day of our lives thinking that it would be easy? How many of us see our living conditions as ideal climates from which to thrive? I don’t know about you, but that is not the story I have been hearing. Everyone I know of has experienced hardships. It’s part of the human experience.

If you are between a rock and a hard place, in a matter of speech, you have no choice. Your hands are tied. There is no plan B. But in life, if there was a plan B, plan A would never work. Your circumstances may be far from perfect. But where you are is as good a place as any to begin. After a while you may realise that you are stronger than you think.  You may find that you are the very thing, holding the mountain together.

Mountains have always been compared to tasks that seem insurmountable, (even the word insurmountable refers to the structure), but nothing in this world is immune from vulnerability on some level. The mountain is always changing. Each year, the Himalayan mountain range shrinks by approximately 2 cm. In my own backyard, to the untrained eye hiking trails look mostly the same, but the erosion caused by heavy rains changes the landscape ever so slightly. The transition is seamless but the difference is unmistakable.

Many changes in our lives are like that. How many times have you caught yourself worrying about a change in the future, only to find that when that day arrived, you were ready to face it? Sometimes, for a growth spurt we have to make a conscious effort, but other times, change is seamless. Most of the time, showing up faithfully each day is enough. I might not know what the next step will be, but I know how to take this step right here and I am willing to bet that you do too. I have found that rising each day and just doing what I know to do is enough. It has never been about working unsustainably hard but just as tree roots crush rocks and rain erodes the mountains, consistency has proven itself to be more effective than short bursts of power. In other words, there will never be a better time or place for you to start thriving than right now where you are.

So my question to you today is, what is it in you that needs to melt away to move into the life waiting for you?
We are all vulnerable but we are all also incredibly adaptive.
You may have your eyes on a certain goal. Your circumstances may not be ideal for thriving in that area, but where you are is an ideal place to start. Like a seed between the cracks of the mountain you can choose to take the opportunity you have in front of you, or wait the rest of your life for opportunities that may never come.

By stepping out in faith and showing the willingness to take the next step without guarantees, be ensured that answers will come. In a year from now, you will look back and see that you are in a completely different place. You will look back and find that you did adapt, you were strong enough and that you could change.