I usually end my videos with a common refrain, “Stay on the path!” Different people tend to interpret that little phrase differently. That is one purpose for saying it—to bring your meaning to mind. Some hear me saying be careful to follow well-marked trails and not get lost. Others may hear another message that encourages them with a deeper understanding, embrace the trail for whatever it offers ahead of you. I leave the meaning for this saying up to the individual who hears it. However, most maxims are like icebergs. The tip is exposed, but the biggest part lays buried quietly beneath deep waters. I learned a deep lesson for myself in “stay on the path” while hiking over many miles and weeks. When the physical demand gave way to the mental stress and looking at the rough paths of the Trail turned inward to the uncharted paths of my soul.
When I planned to hike the Appalachian Trail, the books and videos warned of various things that could derail the hiker. Physical injury, mental breakdown, or financial burdens could all stop one’s journey. Sometimes homesickness or employment opportunities would coax a person off the trail. However, no one mentioned family obligations. In fact, there are so many things that can force us to stop short of hiking from Georgia to Maine, or Maine to Georgia, that it is amazing that anyone completes the journey. Everything must line up nearly perfectly to enable someone to break from all the other demands and expectations of their lives for four to six months and focus on a solitary goal of completing this amazing dream. I admire those who do it, and I realize that they were both determined and fortunate. This is their path. In hiking phraseology, they are blessed to be able to “hike their own hike.”
Sometimes to call to stay on the path means following the physical trail as it’s marked and blazed. It is one way to listen to and learn from those who have traveled this way before me and learn from them. This lesson taught me to always embrace the trail just as it is and seek what it has to offer me. Staying on the path is a way of submitting to it rather than fighting with it. It is a way of accepting what the trail offers rather than trying to conquer it. The mountains, valleys, streams, creeks, roots, and rocks will always remain here as long as time remains. It is futile to fight with the trail and these beauties are unconquerable. Rather than wasting my energy resisting, dreading, or complaining the trails that face me, I hope that I will slow down enough to search for the joy that lays deep within this experience.
Sometimes to stay on the path means hiking a different way. During those final seven miles from Mount Cammerer to the northern terminus of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park at Pigeon River Bridge, I considered what it would mean for me to “stay on the path.” The need to care for family and community back home ever increased its call. The Trail had given me an opportunity for strength and healing. This had been a critical time self-care. For me to continue to thru-hike, I would have simply been demanding my way for selfishness’ sake. Some needed to thru-hike and the Trail would continue to offer lessons to help them grow. I had other needs. I still needed opportunities to commune with creation and the Creator, but I could enjoy those opportunities by hiking sections of this Trail, as well as other trails less traveled. I continue to learn to stay on the path. Now it’s time for me to listen to the trail for other lessons too. There are opportunities where I must step aside to see more.