The Man And The Bridge

He greeted me, another traveler, joining his path headed in an unknown direction but on a path none the less.

I was passing him at the time and as I did, he called out to me “hey, your shoes untied”

I stopped before the bridge crossing and looked down and decided not to worry about it right then and kept walking forward leaving no words of gratitude just a simple wave of the hand.

As I continued on and past the bridge, I came upon a section of trail that was built up along the banks of the river that was just beyond an area of rapids – to cross the river.

I moved swiftly through the area, crossing the rocks and boulders and over the timbers.

The sound of the wind and the rapids consumed me.

I don’t know what happened for certain but next thing I knew, as I stepped forward from timber to rock- my right foot came out from under me – and my left foot followed suit!

I made a splash and landed in the river. Luckily in a section of it that was chest deep while sitting in it.

I looked over at the path, saw the algae on the rocks and knew what had just occurred, I looked down at my feet and I was missing my left shoe.

I stood up in a panic – no pain luckily, and started to look for my shoe in the water around me and then I looked down the river. It was nowhere in sight and wasn’t floating!

I finally found it, right where I fell. My shoe lace was stuck between two timber’s.

The lace was holding it in place, keeping it from floating away.

I let out a sigh of relief, I was 5 miles into this trek and that’s a long way to head back without a shoe on my left foot!

I sat on the timber and put my shoe back on and re-tied both my left and my right shoe.

Everything I had with me was wet from the fall.

I decided in that moment not to continue on. I would  instead head back the other direction and call it a day.

I retraced the river, over rocks and though the timber’s, back to the worn down section of the bridge.

The man still stood there.

This time, he greeted me with a towel.

“I saw you take a fall back there – good thing that section of the river is a shallow one.” He said.

“Yeah”, I said, as I accepted the towel from him and dried off my face and my phone.

I sat on the ground beside the bridge.

“Thanks for the towel..” I said humbly.

“No problem” said the man.

“Ya know, it could have really went two ways, couldn’t it…” he said.

I looked up at him inquisitively and said “what do you mean”

“Well; you could have tied that shoe at the bridge, continued on and still slipped on that rock and fell”

“Oh I see what you mean, it could have still happened “even if”..

“Yeah, it may have been unavoidable that you landed in that river today, but you picked yourself up – and you decided to make the best of it.”

I stood up, looked back over at the water, took a moment. Turned to the man and handed him back the towel..

“Thanks for the towel sir, I should probably be on my way, I appreciate the kindness.”

He took the Towel back from me and said

“no problem, sometimes we get tied up

..instead of stopping, we have to pull ourselves up and keep going forward- be safe out here and take care..”

He continued forward across the bridge headed to the river.

I headed back to the car, I couldn’t help but replay the events in my mind. That stranger offered a unique perspective that I may have not considered.

“If I had or had not tied my shoe, I may have still stumbled and fell…

It wasn’t about the fall, it was about what I did after I picked myself back up.

I chose to turn back and not keep going forward on the path.

Sometimes we are given nudges along the way – nudges that if we listen offer us beautiful insights – it’s up to us to be grateful, kind, receptive, humble and in tune to everything around us.

Somethings are unavoidable, so, we must find gratitude and a positive perspective as we all continue forward.