It's a sunny mid-November morning. The air is chill, but the sun is warm on the face. It's perfect weather to go out for a walk. And that's what we are going to do. Let's go see how the nearby river is doing these days.
We walk at the grove's edge for a while, waiting for an opening to reach the water. However, we can’t find one. We know the river is on the other side of this thicket of trees and shrubs, but we can't find a path through it. This way, we will never see the water.
There are no other choices. We must stop looking and venture through the trees.
The vegetation becomes thicker and thicker, and the ground is muddy and heavy. Ten minutes, then twenty. Half an hour goes by. We are dirty and sweaty and don't know where we are. We can't see the path where we came from anymore. We have yet to see the river. We don't even know if we are going in the right direction.
Is the river that way or the other? Are we getting any closer?
Here, it is too muddy; I've almost lost my shoes. There, the vegetation is too thick, and there's no way we can walk through it. Do we go back or forward?
This is the story of most transformation journeys, isn't it? There's always a point midway, in which you can see neither the known ground you left behind nor the new one you hope to find on the other side. You are standing there tired and sweaty in the mud, and all the doubts creep in. You even wonder if there is anything on the other side. If all your struggle is worth it.
We go forward. We are already full of mud and will need to wash our clothes anyway. Plus, we really want to see the river, and it would be a shame to go through all this struggle for nothing. We push through. We get dirtier, and we start having fun. "Maybe we are moving beyond time, and when we get to the other side, we will discover that it's been years for the rest of the world. Like a movie." Time flies, and then, suddenly, we are out of the woods. The river is there before our eyes in all her beauty (this river here is a female). Everything is perfect. The blue sky, the warm sun, the white pebbles and the transparent running water. It was, indeed, worthy.
I'd never get to the other side if I was alone. Being with a friend transformed the adversities into a playful experience. If you are going through the muddy midpoint of a transformation journey, you may want to find someone to help you add some playfulness. And remember that “change is hard at first, messy in the middle, and gorgeous at the end.” This one is from Robin Sharma.
By the way, Renzo, I'm still removing mud from my shoes ten days later.