Road Blocks.

I'm scared of birds. Yes, I know, most people think I am fearless and I'm sorry to have confess otherwise. It's 6th grade's fault though, when they made us watch the movie "The Birds" and wouldn't let me sit in the hallway even when I found it scary. In Seattle I would cross the street to avoid pigeons, when a bird flew into the store I locked myself in the office even though I was in charge...I wouldn't even hang a bird kite with scary talons.

Today I finished a 4 mile run and decided to cap it off with a mile long cool down. When I was about a quarter of the way into the cool down I noticed a flock of geese in the water and one that had wondered onto the path. I thought maybe a half mile would be plenty for a cool down and that I should turn right around and go back to the car. I started to feel a little panicky about that mean looking goose dive bombing me and poking my eyes out.

As the panic set in I reminded myself I'm no longer a quitter. I don't turn and run when things get hard anymore. So with much care, I stepped around the bird, avoiding all eye contact and proceeded on my walk...well, maybe with a bit more vigor in my step until I was a safe distance away from that mean looking goose. As I turned around at the half mile mark I noticed ahead that the one goose had become two and as I approached the two became three and then four and more and more.

I took in my surroundings. There were no bikes in sight to scare the geese away. No other runners were approaching to clear the path. The geese were between me and the bridge so I couldn't cross across the mill race. Could I swim across?? The water was high enough, it wasn't the far but maybe the disease from the mill race would be worse than the attack of the geese. As anxiety crept in I had to make a decision. I could let these geese run me off my path, stop me in my tracks and send me running backwards. I could also step carefully to the side, proceed with caution for a while and then run like crazy to get a safe distance away from the mean birds but still headed to my goal.

As I took deep breaths, preparing myself to approach the geese, I decided to make these geese into a metaphor...if they were a metaphor I could handle walking past them a little easier. So, the geese. On any path there are roadblocks. In my journey there are the people who aren't supportive, who try to sabotage. There is the Chief, open for the season inviting me in. There are boys who flirt and get me thinking about dating more than I think about working out enough to reach my weight-loss goals (but really, flirting is so much more fun!!). There are the restaurant menus I look at when traveling for work, filled with yummy unhealthy options. Then, there is me, I know I stand in my own way at times even though that physically isn't possible...this is a metaphor after all.

So, I walked past the geese. They didn't bother me, they didn't sqwack (what noise do geese make?), they didn't flap their wings, they had no clue I was trying to pass and they were in my way. The roadblocks don't know they're blocking my path either. When friends ask to go out to lunch and I don't counter the unhealthy reastuarant for one with healthier options...they don't know they are on my path and I haven't told them. The Chief won't change it's location but I could change the path I drive. And as for that boy...well I guess I could say please call so I can stop thinking about the fact you haven't called...but maybe the metaphor doesn't work so well there.

The moral of the geese?

Things get in the way. They don't know they're in the way. Tell them they are in the way and ask them to move. If they can't move, move yourself...just keep moving forward. Always. Move Forward. Oh, and respect the geese.