Lessons Of A Lone Hiker

It was 70 degrees outside,
no clouds and a slight breeze,
can you blame me for going on a hike?
I did go by myself, which I know,
shame on me, but I just HAD TO!

This hike, however was
like nothing I'd ever experienced.
You need to know that this actually happened
and I'm sorry for the profanity.

I had been hiking for probably
about an hour when I started to experience
some super intense stabbing pain in my abdomen.

I tried to walk it off,
but after about five minutes
I had to take a little break
so I sat down on a log.

This might seem a little
"Good Samaritan-esk"
And it kind of is,
but three different groups of
people walked by me while I was there.

The first set was a man
with a woman following
about 4 steps behind him.
I smiled at the man and said "Hi"
as he walked by.
He nodded in my direction and kept walking.
The woman who was following him received
the same greeting from me, a smile and a "Hi".

But instead of walking by,
She stopped, looked at me and said, and I quote
"You're an asshole, I hate you."
And then promptly started walking again.
I wish I could have seen my face,
I looked around to make sure she was talking to me,
and whispered a simple questioning, "me?"

But she kept walking.
So, there I was, imploding
while a random woman
swore at me and then kept walking.
I'm pretty sure I looked up and muttered
 "really Heavenly Father, why?"

Oh wait, it gets weirder.

The next bunch was a group of
three little kids, 2 boys and 1 girl
about 6-8 years old.
The two little boys had their
arms around each others shoulders and
were jovially singing,

"Go, Tell it on the mountain,
over the hills and everywhere;
Go tell it on the mountain
that Jesus Christ is born."

This trio was such a stark contrast
to the previous duo that I literally thought I was dreaming.
But no, the children said hello and happily skipped by.

The next was a little more "normal" feeling,
a mom and her daughter.
The mother had the daughter on her shoulders
and the daughter was playing the "why?" game,
"Why do we have trees, why do we have grass, etc".

Reminder, this entire time, probably about 20 minutes,
I'm dying, I'm in so much pain that I can't walk.

The mom and daughter say hello and smile as they walk by,
and as they do I notice that the mother has a bald head,
covered with a bandana.
They passed by
 and after a while I decided that if I didn't get up and start walking
I didn't know how long I would just be sitting there.

So, all hunched over I started shuffling down the trail.

Pretty soon I caught up to the mother and daughter pair.
They were stopped on the trail looking at a squirrel,
and they joined me as I walked.

The mother asked where I lived, where I went to school,
made small talk.
I told her I thought she was cool for taking her children hiking
all by herself.
She simply said, "It's been a hard year for our kids, I thought they deserved to have some fun."
And then we parted ways.

What?
Yeah, crazy right?

I finally made it to my car and was so grateful that I could just drive home and lay down,
BUT
I also drove home with a question in my mind,

"Which of the hikers am I?"
Am I rude? Do I happily sing and skip through life? Do I carry my family on my shoulders?

Yes, the pain did go away.
The timing was very interesting,
just perfect to meet each group.

And I decided that
I want to be the kind of person
who recognizes when people are in pain,
I want to stop, pick them up in my arms
and carry them back down the trail.