Just when you want to give up....

It was my birthday last week. It was a hot, muggy day so my husband and I decided to drive up to the mountains and swim in this beautiful little lake we'd heard wonderful things about. We were excited. We hadn't been in the mountains yet this summer and were excited about going swimming in natural, peaceful surroundings (versus a chlorine-filled, concrete pool!). We jumped in the car at 5:30pm (after my husband got off work), jumped onto the freeway, and proceeded to sit in traffic for over an hour. We started getting frustrated and cranky from the heat and stalled traffic. Then I--determined not to let it get me down on my birthday--started making jokes, talking about how great the lake was going to feel, and challenged my husband and myself to start "intending" that the traffic would open up and start flowing at a 55mph pace again. It took about 15 minutes from the time we set our intention, but the traffic did part like the Red Sea (well, maybe not THAT dramatic, but it did start flowing nicely). We were once again excited about our adventure!

About an hour later, after following our very meager directions to the pristine alpine lake we'd heard so much about, we started losing hope. Where is Forest Road 57? Did we pass it? We had no landmarks, no mileage markers, no nothing to tell us if we were close or not. Where the heck is it? I remembered the power of intention again and started intending that we would get to this lake, damn it!!! We tried to make jokes to lighten the mood but both of us (as we later shared with each other) were starting on a downward spiral of hopelessness. I, myself, was starting to wonder whether or not my 41st birthday was going to be a complete bust! And then, about 20 minutes later.....FR 57 pops up--seemingly out of thin air!

Woo hoo! We were on our way again filled with renewed hope and enthusiasm about this adventure we were on. It felt like we were on a scavenger hunt. Just when we were about to turn around and head home a new clue would show itself.

After about 30 more minutes we started losing hope again. We were pretty certain we'd find our next turn off we just weren't sure how long it would take. We were losing light fast and if we didn't find this lake soon we'd have to turn around. A four-hour drive without finding gold? Simply unacceptable!!! I kept my fingers crossed.

A-ha! Our turn off appeared. And then our next turn off appeared (although we almost missed it because one of the numbers on the FR sign was barely legible). Our next challenge was to find the trailhead to the lake. We drove up a gravel road and saw some cars parked to our left. We decided it was a clue but we kept going just to be sure. We started to wonder if there was even a lake close by. And then, I saw a break in the trees on our left. "That looks like it could be it," I said. We turned around, parked our car where we'd seen the others and started hiking up a trail off the "parking lot." It wasn't promising. "We're going up, when we should be going down. This doesn't seem right," my husband, the ecologist said. I was determined. "Let's give it a little longer." We kept hiking. No lake. Kept hiking. No lake. Finally, about 20 minutes later we saw a break in the trees. My husband said, "Now THIS looks promising." I wasn't so sure. Then as we climbed to the top of the hill we saw it--the LAKE was right in front of us!!!! Surrounded by trees, calm, clear...beautiful!!!

We couldn't believe that, after all the twists and turns and all the driving and wandering, we'd finally found it! We had about 45 minutes of sunlight left if we were lucky! We stripped down, jumped in and swam around for as long as the light would allow. Even our sweet pooch who rarely takes more than a quick dunk in water, was swimming wholeheartedly, enthusiastically along with us! It was a sight to behold! A miracle!

As I breast-stroked my way across the lake, listening to the breeze whispering through the trees and watching the light of dusk descend on the scene, I thought, "This is the best birthday ever!!!" The water felt like silk. My husband--who loves swimming as much as I do (which is A LOT)--was dunking and diving and having a grand old time. Our dog was swimming laps like there was no tomorrow. We--our little family--were in alpine lake heaven!

It lasted all of 30 minutes. We got out, dried off, and headed back down the trail to our car. Then it was time to drive 3 hours back home. Yes. You heard right. Three hours. And did I mention that it was after 9pm and we hadn't eaten yet? And did I mention that my husband had put in a full day at work and had driven the entire way thus far and was fully willing to drive the rest of the way home even though he was pooped and had to get up at 6am the next day? We (he) drove for a total of 6 hours that night. Now, that's true love.

To make a long story short. We ate at Taco Bell on the way home. Mind you, it was 11:15pm by then! But we'd done it! We'd found the lake, swam in it, praised it, loved it, laughed about it, and were now eating chicken soft tacos and a bean burrito together in our car, safely on our way to our sweet little home.

What I took away from this is that you just never know when the breakthrough is going to happen. Whatever you're feeling hopeless, lost, confused, frustrated, depressed about could change in an instant!

The weekend proceeded with some bumps in our relationship "road" but by Saturday night it was breakthrough--city once again! A few of the "hot spots"--read, gnarly challenges that we couldn't seem to overcome despite the best of intentions and hours upon hours of conversation--cooled off in no time, no space. We reached heights in areas of our relationship that we didn't know we could reach!!! It was a weekend full of new discoveries, new insights, new experiences about which we'd truly lost hope.

Trust. Faith. Intention. These are the words that my husband and I took away from our experience in the mountains. Something bigger than us lead us to our destination--literally and figuratively. We realized how hard we hold on sometimes (to beliefs, thoughts, ideals, perceptions, grudges) and that if we could just learn to surrender and let go that the path might just be revealed to us with much less effort! I'm also proud to say that we didn't bicker once during this whole voyage. Not once. We laughed and joked a lot. We expressed our doubts. But we never gave up. We worked together and made "it" happen. I'm proud of us. I'm thankful to the "force" (Star Wars analogy here). I'm grateful to my husband for being willing and to myself for staying in the game. Life is a mysterious adventure, isn't it?