The Part Where Nothing Happens
Most stories have trained us to expect a reveal.
You climb the hill and there is a castle.
You open the door and there is a treasure.
You turn the corner and finally understand everything.
But most walks are not like that.
A few years ago my wife and I were walking in the woods.
As often happens, we arrived at a fork in the trail.
And as often happens, she asked:
"Can't we just go and see what's around the next bend?"
So we did.
Around the next bend there was another bend.
And after that another.
And then a stretch of ordinary forest.
No castle.
No revelation.
No hidden valley.
Just trees.
At first glance that sounds disappointing.
But I've noticed something.
Many of the most important things in my life arrived exactly this way.
Not through a breakthrough.
Through a continuation.
A marriage is often like that.
A craft is often like that.
A friendship is often like that.
An orchard certainly is.
You plant a tree.
The next day it is still a small tree.
The following week it is still a small tree.
A year later it is a slightly larger tree.
If you are waiting for fireworks, you will miss the whole thing.
The miracle is not hidden behind the next bend.
The miracle is that you kept walking.
I think this is one reason I have become suspicious of dramatic transformations.
I have experienced some.
Most people have.
But when I look back over sixty-six years, what shaped me most was not the thunderbolt.
It was the accumulation of ordinary turns.
A conversation.
A book.
A walk.
A friendship.
A mistake.
A return.
A hundred small choices that looked insignificant when they happened.
The forest path rarely announces itself.
It simply continues.
This week I posted another newsletter.
Next week I hope to post another.
Not because something spectacular has happened.
Because the path is still there.
Because there is another bend.
Because I am curious.
And perhaps that is enough.
Perhaps more than enough.
A Question for the Orchard
What in your life has grown mostly through continuation rather than breakthrough?
Not the thunderclap.
The footpath.