On Saturday I visited Wadsworth Falls State Park in Middletown.  I’m from Wadsworth, Ohio so this visit was a must.  I didn’t do much research before going (just heard that there’s a waterfall nearby that has the same name as my hometown and wanted to visit!) and found an address to use for my GPS: 721 Wadsworth Street, Middletown.  There was a map near the parking lot that showed how to walk to the “Big Falls.”  The walk ended up being around 3 miles, which was lovely.  Though I didn’t plan on walking that long since my legs were sore from getting lost for hours in a state park in Massachusetts with my best friend on Friday (long story though that mishap was 100% not our fault.)

The trail in the woods ended at a road and after walking across railroad tracks and down a little hill, I could finally see Wadsworth Falls.  Here’s the irony though—there is a parking lot right at the falls!  I have no idea what address that is, but had to laugh as families pulled up to admire Wadsworth Falls, hopped in their cars and drove off while I had to slog back through the woods to return to my car safely parked at 721 Wadsworth Street.  

Sometimes we have a destination in mind and the journey we take to get there isn’t along a straight path.  Sometimes we end up meandering (because we just didn’t realize that there was a parking lot right there!)  Hindsight is 20/20 as the saying goes. 

Isn’t life so often this way?  We may get where we wanted to go, but it’s not always by traveling along an easy or direct route.  Or maybe we don’t end up where we wanted to be at all or where we expected to be.  Traveling through life entails twists and turns  My grandmother was directionally-impaired and passed that trait onto me.  One of her sayings was, “Well, I know where I am, but I have no idea how I got here!”  I feel like that often and am a big believer that God is with us on our journeys, especially present in the times of meandering where we literally have no idea where we are.  God’s beside us, that’s all I know for sure.  

(This Week’s Thoughts 9.27.18)

Photo by Rev. Lauren Lorincz.