Circles

I hate circles.   Give me a good straight line anyday.  Lines indicate progress.  You start one place and end at another.  Circles are pointless.  I walked 10k around the lake today and I discovered that walking around something is psychologically difficult for me.  There's no payoff at the end.  After a whole bunch of steps, I'm basically exactly where I started.  Each km marker was like someone was intentionally taunting me with how far I've come from being nowhere.  The other people on the trail had clearly arrived.  Running, walking, fishing - just doing what they wanted to be doing.  But me...I looked like everyone else but I disliked it.  At the 6k marker, there was a bench in the middle of nowhere.  Why would anyone want to stop midway?

That's the image of my sabbatical.  Maybe one day I'll learn to stop there and enjoy the trip instead of rushing to the end of a line that feels frustratingly circular.  Even better, maybe I'll learn to be more like Cherry who enjoyed every second of getting dirty and distracted...