There is a trail I walk often that has lately been full of stones. The last rain brought them, I suppose. They are not big, but they are there, and you have to dodge them or jump over them.
One day, tired of stumbling, I bent down and moved one aside. Then another. And another. By the end of the trail, the difference was huge. The path had not become shorter, but it had become kinder.
I started thinking about how many times we stumble over the same stones. Over the same arguments, the same fears, the same habits we know hurt us and that we keep stepping on because they seem part of the landscape.
You do not have to move all the stones in the world. But we can move the ones on our path. One at a time, without hurry, starting with the one that makes us stumble today.
Sometimes I wonder if I am the only one who stumbles. And then I remember that we all have stones, only the ones of others cannot be seen from outside.
What matters is not the clean path. It is the decision to bend down and move one stone when it is time.