I was doing a photo walk at Clark Lake Park—a local park I’ve spent quite a bit of time at. As I approached this clearing between two sections of forest, I observed where the trail I was on split in three directions: straight ahead, to the left, and to the right. This illustrated something we face in everyday life: choices. Sometimes those choices are small, others monumental, and still others somewhere in between.
Although not evident in the picture, the story of those trails beyond what’s visible further illustrates some choices in life. The trail to the left heads uphill, which might be perceived as more difficult. In reality, there’s very little uphill, and it is the best-maintained of the three trails—and the only one with a bridge over a stream that all three trails cross.
The straight trail is the most intuitive—keep going in the same direction. But the stream crossing means going down a slope to the stream, jumping over it, and climbing up the other side.
The trail to the right looks easiest and does provide a unique close-up view of Clark Lake. But it also has the most difficult stream crossing of the three trails, especially after heavy rains (not uncommon in this “neck of the woods”).
