The drive was unquestionably unappealing.
2000+ miles. 30 hours behind the wheel.
We didn’t want to drive.
But we did want home.
And home was on the other side of the drive.
We had flown across the country to unite with family for Thanksgiving- a joy-filled, chaotic reunion. But we were bringing a vehicle home and faced the return trip by car. By car with our precious cancer-beating pup and our more-precious daughter still miserable, weak and sick after two weeks of fighting pneumonia despite apparently-ineffective antibiotics. The drive would be exhausting and scary and just plain hard. It was a daunting prospect, a journey we did not relish.
But the only way out was through…
So 4am found us bundling our precious cargo for warmth and comfort in the cold and dark. And starting. Departing.
Beginning what we didn’t want to begin… Because, well, we wanted what was waiting on the other side of the dreaded drive.
There are other hard things I don’t want to go through. I want to skip the hard work of getting “through.” It’s exhausting and daunting and scary and just plain hard. It hurts. I’d rather skip the hard journey. It’s tempting to just sweep everything under the rug, to ignore, to pretend. But I want what’s on the other side of the pain. I want the outcome that is only waiting on the other side, after the hard.
What are you facing that you don’t want to walk through? What hard are you tempted to ignore? What are you dreading?
What healing awaits if we will have the courage to work through the pain? To press on through the hard?
Staying stuck or backtracking won’t get us to the other side. Avoidance won’t get us to where what we want awaits.
If we want the destination…
Then we must face the journey.
The only way out is through.
So let’s be brave together. I’ll see you at 4am. We can caravan through the hard.
To the other side.
______________
Hilarie Hicks Robison
December 2024