I am a traveler, just like you, moving through life. Many years ago, I started on a journey toward a fulfilling life. I was destined for greatness. However, I got lost. I had been lost in my personal woods for years. When I realized I was lost, I immediately began thinking about getting out the woods. One problem: I did not know which to go. The trees, plants, and rocks all looked the same. I ran around in circles for years seeing and reacting only to the distractions of being lost. I felt hopeless and fell into deep despair. I found a way out of that nightmare and you can too. Here’s a fictional tale about lessons learned, after being lost in the woods of my life.
The realization of being lost was compounded by yet another problem: Not being in the woods alone! I could hear wolves moving fluidly between the trees like water down a hill side. They were closing in on me quickly, so I had to do something. Then it hit me, “Build a secure cabin – wait them out”. I erected my cabin, bolted the door, and covered my ears. The cabin had everything I needed, but none of what I wanted in a home. Hey, I figured it would be temporary until I figured out how to get out of the woods. Months later, a town had sprung up around my cabin. I became committed to it, its causes, and lost sight of my initial goal of getting out of the woods. Over the coming months, I felt a since of security mixed with the uneasiness of fooling still being lost. I couldn't shake the feeling that something was just plain wrong.
For months, I could not stop thinking about getting out of that cabin. I could not wait to escape this town. Right on cue, I heard the wolves outside my door. I peered out my cabin's window into the darkness and was greeted by several anxious eyes looking back at me. I could see their white fangs flashing against the darkness, as I dissolved into the darkness of my cabin. Wolves! The fear of them tearing me to shreds was enough to keep me cabin bound. So, I continued dreaming about my search for a long forgotten place. The place I sought before I was lost. I dreamed about that place often. A place where life filled me up, gave me security, and I could make a difference in the lives of others. Unlike my current town, I didn’t think anyone truly needed me or would miss me if I were gone. Sure, there were those relationships embedded in patterns of my daily activities, but nothing truly meaningful. I needed to escape my nightmare and resume the search for my dream place, but how?
It hits me, “I need help getting my bearings. I need to find a woodsman!” Woodsman were few, independent people, whom the wolves tangled with and lost every time. I just need to have enough courage to watch for one passing through my town. Woodsmen only traveled by night with some uncanny sense of direction. They had a fearlessness born of courage under fire. They knew what they wanted and how to get there. One night, I unbolted my door and waited patiently for a woodsman to pass through town. While others bolted their doors, for fear of wolves, I need to do the opposite, unthinkable thing of unbolting my door. Although woodsmen were not the kindest people in the world, I had to reach out to one. What did I have to lose anyway?
I waited. First, I could see the flashing white fangs of the wolves. In the distance, I could also see the lone woodsman’s long handled axe, with a sharp blade glinting in the moonlight. The wolves moved in quickly, and a battle ensued. The sounds of door bolts being re-checked and fortified resounded across our little town. Then, like clockwork, wolves yelped loudly and painfully beneath the woodsman’s powerful axe. Every blow sent a wolf tumbling into the underbrush and the underworld. In seconds, the battle was over. The woodsmen stood quietly, as he collected himself and his thoughts.
Like many nights before, he just stood, as if waiting for something or someone. He and others never spoke. He never enters our town either. He just passes by our town nightly, occasionally eliminating a few wolves, and purposefully going on his way. Tonight, he began turning around and stopped as my door creaking open attracted his attention. He stopped moving and resumed his earlier posture of just standing there in the darkness with his glinting axe blade. His axe was a fearsome as wolves’ fangs, but I knew I needed to speak with him. So, I stepped out into the darkness. I could feel some of the town’s people’s eyes and could hear some whispering anxiously not to go into the fearful unknown. A few whispers had already written me off.
As I got closer to the woodsman, my heart and mind raced faster with each passing moment. The woodsman remained calm, said nothing, and waited patiently for me. Before I could speak, the woodsman asked me, “What can I do for you?” I remarked, “Do you know how to get out of the woods?” Woodsman chuckled to himself. I asked the woodsman, “What’s so funny?” He doesn’t say a word, but hands me his other axe and says, “Do what I do.” We began walking straight for miles on end. Occasionally wolves would pop out of nowhere and I would cringe with fear, until the woodsman said, “Do what I do.” I observed how he did not swing wildly with fear, but purposefully. He swung forcefully and true. So, I did, too. Wolves began dropping like flies. There we stood, collecting our thoughts, and surveying the wood line for more attackers. None came. Without a word, the woodsman began walking again. I followed him. Within a few hours, he pointed up a hill and said, “Beyond that hill is where you must go.” With the experience and wisdom of the woodsman, I journeyed over the hill. As I got further away from the woodsman, he yelled with an echo, “Watch for wolves, and keep going no matter what!” I continued uphill for what seemed hours. The trees, rocks, and bushes all looked alike, it was dark, and wolves, again, were flowing between the trees like water. Everything around me told me that I was lost, alone, and about to be devoured, until I looked down at my axe: Experienced, Purposeful, and True. The axe became my compass needle, which struck though wolves, brush, and anything that stood in my way.
Hours later, I crested the hill and saw the faint lights of a small town. I could hear familiar voices that I’d not heard in years. I rushed down into the town where the doors were bolted, wolf tracks riddled the town, and the flashing of familiar, hungry fangs moved through the trees. I stood there and chuckled to myself – “Experienced, purposeful, and true.” Minutes later, the yelping stopped, and a door opened. I stood quietly until I could see a person moving in the darkness. It was a woman. She approached cautiously.
She stopped about 10 feet away, and raised her candle to face height. She whispers my name with amazement, before turning to the town and shouting my name aloud. The town lit up and people poured into the streets, to welcome me. She dreamed that I would come into their lives and make a difference. As the town’s bright lights drove off the remaining wolves, I stood marveling at how different this town seemed from the last one. How easily I fell into relationships, began immediately doing what perhaps I knew in my heart to do, but could not find the strength to do on my own – find my place. The woodsman and this unique town of people became exactly what I was looking for all along. After several years, I sat on the porch with the woman who’d approached me that night. She was now my wife. She snuggled close to me and whispered my name, just as she did the night of our meeting. She whispered it with a deep sense of knowing.
Hearing her say my name transported me back to that first night we met in the dark. I reflected on never meeting her before and had a question for her. I asked her, “How did you know it was me that night?” She smiled and reached for my axe. She pointed out something on the handle that I had never noticed: her name! She etched her name carefully and distinctly into the handle. I could clearly see the name “Hope! She began telling me her story about a man she dreamnt was lost in the woods. She, too, had to gain enough courage to approach the Woodsman. She unbolted her door, overcame the whispering neighbors and peering eyes, to give the Woodsman her axe. She asked if he could find a man lost in the woods. He nodded reassuringly before leaving into the dark night. Hope waited patiently for several months, until I stumbled out of the darkness one night. Hope had made a provision for me, even when I could not see it myself. I hugged her tight, before leaving the porch for my study. I sat down and penned these lessons for other who might be lost in the woods:
1. Never settle for being lost, forget where you are going, or how it feels to fulfill your dreams
2. Wolves are always looking for the inexperienced, purposeless fool who are ill-equipped for the woods
3. Woodsmen are few. The woods have given them invaluable experience, taught them purpose, and how important it is to strike true at the heart of fear or be bound to it forever
4. If you are attentive, you will discover Hope is always looking for you. You must have courage and pursuit her through your fears and find your way through the distractions of the woods, to safety
I closed my journal, left my study, and snuggled into bed with Hope. I still have that axe. The wolves don’t come around very often and the town is alive with light, satisfaction, and anticipation of life without fear.
