Walk the Path

Early one morning a young boy set off on a trip to see his grandmother who lived ten miles away. The road he walked was well worn from 200 years of travel.

A few miles into his journey he came to a point where the road took a wide detour up a steep hill. The young boy could see his destination only a short distance away, across a beautiful meadow with flowers and tall green grass.

The boy thought how stupid it was that so many people walked miles out of their way, up and down hills, rather than just cut across the meadow. He was too smart for that!

He set off at a run. “Oh, this is much better!” he thought… right before he tripped and slammed to the ground. The beautiful ground cover was made up of sticky vines covered with thorns. They tore at his hands as he struggled to free his legs. An hour later, exhausted and bloodied, he sat on an old log to catch his breath.

Just as he started to relax, the first bee stung him. Within moments, he had been stung a hundred times. He ran screaming, and escaped the angry swarm.

He came to a small pond with the most inviting blue water he had ever seen. It smelled lovely, too. He drank deep, only to convulse in pain as his body rejected the poisonous liquid.

Many hours later, he found himself slogging through waist deep mud. The flowing green grass that had looked so inviting on the other side of the meadow hid a swamp so putrid and foul that he longed for the smell of a fresh skunk to ease the pain in his nostrils.

As night fell, the boy finally emerged from the beautiful meadow and walked the short distance along the road to his grandmother’s house. She met him at the door looking quite worried.

When she saw his condition, she smiled and said, “Ah! I see you took the shortcut.”