Did you eat a lot of paint chips when you were a kid?

I’m afraid that, more often than not, there is simply no answer to the questions that break curiosity and surface in my conscious mind.  This is particulary true when life throws one of its curve balls: so damn perdictable, so tough to hit.

I know that often the answer is that there isn’t an answer, yet I spend most of the hours in a given day trying to find something finite that will suffice.  I complete sentences and respond to my own questions.  Ultimately, for peace of mind, I decide that life is a cycle and try to enjoy the bend I’m in.  That isn’t, I’m afraid, enough to quench my quest for truth.  Is the period the smallest component of a font?  If so, I have to say that it is what I spend most of my time looking for.  What is the answer?  It is.

I think we all know that when we really ask the right questions, there is seldom a true answer.  The solution is what works for you, or me, or the first person to respond to this post with the answer to what is the smallest component of a font (is it the dot on the “i,” or is that the same size as a .?).  There are just so many questions and so few, ahem, clichés.

I guess life is just a little be more complicated than ask and answer; cause and effect; google and I’m feeling lucky.  If I ever thought I had figured it all out, I know now that I was a million miles off (though knowing that, I’m afraid, is one step closer to both knowing the answer and finding out how little I know).  So, I have to know, what should I do when I face a question that warrants no right response?

It’s simple.  Get muddy.

It’s the best we can do.  Find a hike made of wet dirt and eye-opening-perspective-giving views.  The ocean helps.  Oh yea, and frost.  Take a perfectly good pair of shoes and show them who is boss.  Along the way, follow your favorite person’s footsteps and giggle when she says “eww” and “yuk” at a particularly squishy and muddy part.  Tell your feet to take a hike when they want you to turn back.  Recognize that point when a Snickers would really hit the spot but eat your apple instead.  Laugh when the freezing rain stings your wind-blown face.  Find some space on the trail and nod to your angels.  But most of all, take one muddy step in front of the other and revel in the fact that though there may not be an answer, a muddy path with the person you love doesn’t pose much of a question either.

Categories: Life, Love, Perspective, Stream of Conscious

Tags: frost, hiking, life, love, ocean, questions, snickers, writing