The Rock Kicker: What Preparation Means to Me
I shall tell you a story about a little girl who liked to kick rocks and her two friends that didn’t. Every time a rock was in her pathway, she would kick it out of the way. Her friends stepped over the rocks in their pathway or walked around them. They would always ask the little rock-kicker why she wasted her time kicking every rock she saw out of her way rather than just stepping over them or walking around them. They were small enough after all. The little girl would just c and keep kicking each and every rock she saw. As time went on, the rocks started getting bigger, but that was no problem for the little girl because she had become accustomed to kicking all the rocks out of her way. If one was a little bigger, so what? It was in her way, and she was going to move it. And move it she did.
So, each day she would walk to school with her friends, and inevitably she would fall a little behind because she did not want to miss a single opportunity to kick a rock out of her way. As time went on, the rocks continued – almost imperceptibly – to get bigger and bigger. Maybe the little girl who started to get wise started seeking out bigger rocks on her own. Maybe bigger rocks just found their way into her path because she had gotten stronger, or maybe, just maybe bigger rocks are an unsurprising inevitability. For those untrained in the art of rock-kicking (as is our budding wise young lady), simply stepping over the little pebbles with nary a care, stepping around the bigger rocks with conscientious alacrity, and avoiding the biggest rocks with astute dexterity was the more common choice.
But our story’s little girl, who was now pretty grown up, was not of the common sort. Our little girl had a different take on the world around her, a world unavoidably filled with rocks. She did not see the rocks all around her as hazards to be avoided but rather as adventures to be had. What she had unsuspectingly learned after taking the time and care to kick so many little rocks out of her way, was that when the bigger rocks showed up, they were, for her, only slightly bigger than the rocks she had kicked out of her way the previous day. Her friends were still walking around the bigger rocks (because they could) and our rock-kicker was pelting them with increased vigor and success (because she could).
One day, as she was walking along the pathway of life, she came upon a rock so massive, so enormous, so absolutely foreboding that she would have been stunned had she not remembered in the recesses of her mind that she had already come across just such a massive, enormous, and foreboding rock – only slightly smaller – some time before. She nodded knowingly to herself, engaged her I-can-do-this heart, and started kicking.
Our little girl, now quite the wise and wonderful older woman, was able – since she had chosen from early on to face and remove each little pebble that crossed her path at first with a playful kick, and later with the strength and determination that comes from years of discipline, clever thought, and wise behavior. She kicked the rock – as she had always done. It was bigger than little and tougher than easy, but she was trained in facing her rocks; she was well-prepared, and she was capable of success. She kept kicking and kicking and kicking and kicking. And then she kicked some more. This time her kicking went on longer and harder than ever before, but she was accustomed to kicking until the rock was out of her way. She grew tired and sad and even
wondered at times if she had prepared well enough for this extraordinarily large and ominous rock. But a lifetime of wise walking is not something that can be easily ignored. She wanted with all her heart to continue on her wise journey, and no rock – whatever the size – would stop this wise and wonderful woman. She kicked and kicked some more. She rested and soaked her feet, and then she stood tall and kicked and kicked and kicked some more.
And then one day, when she wondered if she would be able to kick even one more time, she kicked one more time. And it was that one kick when all the other kicks now made sense. A small crack opened up in that enormous and unfriendly bolder. Her heart grew a little more in that moment, and she kicked again. And that crack grew into a split. The split became a crevice. The crevice became a break, and through that break the tiniest beam of light peaked out and brightened her weary face, just a little. That speck of light soon became a bolt and that bolt became her hope. She kicked more, and her strength returned. And at last, what had been an impossible block in her path gave way. She had kicked another rock out of her way, and she carried on. Stronger. Happier. Wiser.
On the other side of town, unbeknownst to her, were her childhood friends facing a like bolder that had also blocked their pathways. But because the two of them had not practiced kicking pebbles that had turned into stones out of their ways, they were not prepared as our wise woman was. These two friends of her were ill-prepared to face the rock blocking their ways. Each of their rocks were so big, so large, and so massive that walking around them was simply impossible. One of her friends, not understanding what was before her, just stood in stupefaction and stared at the rock. She had no idea what to do. She had never seen such a rock before, and she was at a loss for what to do. She decided simply to stand there and stare, unable to move forward, unable to move over, and unable to move around this rock. Inaction had marked her life before this rock, and it marked her life after this rock. She had failed to learn an important lesson: “Easy does not mean unnecessary.”
The other friend of this very wise woman, had also encountered a rock bigger than ever before that selfsame day. A rock so large and so massive that avoiding it was simply no longer possible. Of course, she had faced a rock some days ago just a wee bit smaller than the one she was now facing. That time, she was able to squeeze passed it without actually having to face it head on. She felt herself lucky at that moment because, as she said: “Whew! That was lucky!!” Unfortunately, like our other unfortunate lady, this unfortunate lady thought avoidance was a successful strategy in life. The lesson she failed to learn was: Avoidance is not the same thing as overcoming, and without overcoming one’s obstacles, one’s obstacles eventually overcome the avoider. Today, this unlucky lady could recognize the overwhelming size of the rock she was facing, but she had not prepared herself to overcome what she could no longer avoid. Today was the day when avoidance was not an option, and today had arrived with plenty of warning. Sadly, this unlucky lady had allowed herself to pretend for too long. Getting around this obstacle was now inconceivable to her. As she thought about the matter, she grew overwhelmingly discouraged, and true to form, she had but one option in her arsenal: avoidance. She decided it was best to turn around and go back the way she came. She had always avoided unpleasantness before this rock, and she continued to avoid it after this rock.
Sometimes people wonder why someone is so worried about the little things in life – after all, they are just little things. But little does not always mean insignificant. After all, it was our little rock-kicking girl who grew up to become a very wise woman, and it was this very wise woman who taught us the value of continuously doing the little things well.
What Preparation Means to Me: For all its wide and wonderful opportunities, life actually runs along a one-way road: we are each born, and we each die. What happens in between those two moments is quite often largely up to each one of us. Each person inevitably will face rocks, many small, some large, and a few very, very large. If we chose the easy road, we will not have the strength when life unexpectedly requires it of us. If we chose the road of avoidance, we will not have the skill to overcome what is unavoidable. If we chose the path of wisdom, we may (for a time) walk just a little slower than those around us. However, if we continue to walk like our very wise woman and kick the rocks life presents us out of our way, we will grow strong, and our lives will be filled with great opportunities, amazing adventures, and unstoppable moments.
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