For over 10 years I have frequented to a local park with a pool and a playground. Being a mother of 3 and an avid lane swimmer I have spent countless hot summer days there. I know how to get the best and most coveted parking spots, know a fabulous bike route, and have memorized the whole menu for the canteen.
One cold day of early spring I was yearning for some alone time to walk, think, and be near the ocean and the mountains. I had the idea to head to this park for a different purpose.
On that day I took a long walk around the large trails that I usually glimpsed at a distance; they circled a field where I had seen many picnics set up in the summer time. I ventured far from my usual playground-pool-canteen route and much to my surprise discovered the landscape had changed dramatically since the last time I strolled that far, about 10 years ago, before I had my first child.
There were marvellous beaches, a new dog park, beautiful view points and a wetland conservation with rocks to climb on. Some of the paths were muddy, some rocky and some paved. The marvellous loop offered a new vantage point on a place I had spent countless hours over the years. It brought a new joy and fullness to my soul. I was also surprised, and a little embarrassed by how much I had missed out on over the years by staying to my pool-park-canteen route.
Similar to my experience in the park you may have been experiencing the same routines, the same emotional reactions, the same patterns and way of seeing the world that has ingrained in your mind since childhood. In counselling you can find new horizons, new understandings and vantage points to parts of yourself and your life that have been hidden in plain sight.
It just takes a moment to notice new possibilities, and to choose to venture beyond the paths our brains take automatically and discover reach new ways of being.
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