Up in the upper reaches of Alaska and the Northwest Territories, it is said there are only two seasons: July, and Winter. People living in these remote areas depend on the July sun to clear the ice and snow off the roads so enough food and supplies can be brought in to get those who live there through the rest of the year.
The only catch in this long-standing plan is that the heavy trucks used to carry these necessities end up making deep ruts in the sun-softened roadways.
As each successive truck makes the trip, the driver must increasingly use extreme caution to be sure that the rut he chooses to travel is not so deep as to get him permanently stuck in the mud.
How many ruts share YOUR life?
So it is with each of us. The ruts we’ve built into our lives and belief systems can form safe pathways for our journey, or deep trenches within which we may find it difficult to live the lives we choose.
Look at your life. Do you live your life in a rut? Do you live in multiple ruts?
I’m not asking for a character statement. Just a simple admission of the facts is more than enough.
No judgments. Nothing to be ashamed of.
But please, do tell me:
Is your life in a rut?
A deep rut? Or, a shallow one?
Are your habits so ingrained in your life, that you feel as if you’re held fast in their grip – even when that grip isn’t a healthy one?
Or, do you feel as if you’re on auto-pilot . . just skimming the surface of life and all it has to offer . . missing out on what might be just below the surface, because there’s no time in your busy schedule to explore beneath the surface?
Is your thinking in a rut?
Are you the expert in your world – your rut? Are you holding on so tightly to your one right way of being in your world, that you dig yourself deeper and deeper into the same old rut, even though others long ago moved their thinking up to higher ground?
Or, are you so used to your one way of looking at the world, that you’ve no room to consider other points of view . . no flexibility to imagine how another’s world view might be just as valid as your own?
(Wars are based on less than this, you know.)
Is your belief system in a rut?
Do you continue to believe the guiding rules and the stories of your childhood? Do you continue to believe because that’s what you were told to do, or because that is what you choose to do?
Do you believe so strongly in the punishments of non-belief that you keep yourself from exploring beyond the edges of that rut? What is it costing you to hold back?
How much of yourself are you willing to risk to experience what might be beyond the edge (always knowing, of course, that the rut will be there should you decide to that’s where you want to stay)?
Do fears – those you recognize, and those you hide from even your own conscious thought – form the guideposts of your life? How many layers of fear do you keep piled in those ruts of yours? Do they keep you warm? Or, does it get a bit chilly down there?
Fear is an outgrowth of belief, you know. You have to believe in something to fear it. What if you just stopped believing in whatever it is that rut holds for you?
What if you stopped needing the rut, and just decided to hang out on solid ground?
Just a thought, of course.
Beware The Ruts You Choose
We must all beware the ruts we choose for ourselves. Some run far too deep to support a good, healthy life.
Watch out for those deep ones.
Others are shallow, but tricky. You won’t drown in them, but you might stay stuck in their ruttiness far longer than you expect.
Watch out for the shallow ones.
When it comes to the ruts we dig ourselves into in life, I’ve a few suggestions for you:
Become an explorer of your inner world. Keep growing, so you’ll always be able to see over your ruts’ edges. Ruts are okay, if we can fall back on them without being swallowed alive. Big deep ruts may be exciting and powerful, for a while. But I wouldn’t put my long term happiness in one.
Pay attention to what’s inside, as well as outside the ruts you choose for yourself. Do you notice sunshine, blue skies, soft breezes . . or heaviness, dark menacing clouds & fear?
Always have a map that will take you to the surface, and know how to get safely out of your ruts and on to dry ground. Know where your support is, and how to reach it.
Our ruts can make life feel safe.
Our ruts can make life interesting.
Our ruts can make life impassable.
We both know you’ve more important things to do than spend 11 out of every 12 months stuck, waiting for the July sun to soften the mud that encases your life.
Isn’t it high time to de-ruttify your world?!
You can, you know. Don’t wait – not even till July.
. . . . .
What ruts have you dug for yourself over the years? Which still have you in their grips? And what ruts have you turned into tools to better live the life you have?
Please share your rutty-type thoughts and stories. You never know how many others have dug and live in ruts just like those you no longer need in your life. Your story could make a real difference for someone.
Keep growing my friend,
Gail
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
Very interesting and thought provoking even if you think of yourself as a best-age person. Great!
It’s wonderful to hear from you Gordana! I’m glad you found the post interesting, whatever the age. So, tell me: What are the ruts you find yourself digging and climbing into – or, being sucked ever deeper into? And, given all the skills you possess, what do you find most useful in getting you above the ruts? (I always appreciate hearing other expert opinions.) – g
One of the deepest rut is to forget what I live for (or who I am and want to be) by putting things off thinking they are not important. What I find useful? Asking myself is this realy what I want (and the wright answer is feeling I get), and what I do want instead. And then make a one smallest step toward it! I find out when you make one step it is hard to resist to make another
Oh YES! You have the answer Gordana. The difficulty so many people get into is two-fold. First, they don’t trust their feelings enough to go with them when they come. And, second, that one teeny tiny minuscule first step . . For it to happen, they must pick up the foot and choose a direction in which to plant it again. You, my friend, have it down to an inner science. Now how totally cool can that be!
Hi Gail…
When I stopped to ponder this, my first thought was that I don’t have a rut – and maybe I could actually use one. At least a rut tends to travel in a straight line, moving forward towards something.
I see myself as bouncing around all over the place, never getting anywhere. Now I’m thinking that I *am* actually in a rut…a really wide one, bordered by fear. I sometimes see this fear as a “wall” – but now I’m thinking it’s more like an electric fence (where the electric part is actually imaginary, if you know what I mean…)
I believe awareness is the key (to just about everything). If I see myself in the rut, see the imaginary edges, see my habitual behaviour – I can make different choices. At least in theory.
Thanks for the thought provoking post!
Hey Patty -
How wonderful to hear from you! You just have to love ruts, don’t you?
Okay, so what I hear you saying is that you see yourself as being in a realllllllllllllly wide rut with an imaginary electric fence of fear that runs along either side to keep you in. Hmmm, cool. So, let me ask you: How does that fear serve you? And why do you make its expanse so big around you? (i.e., Do you require that big a rut of it to keep you afraid? And what if you decided you didn’t want to be afraid any more . . would the rut get narrower . . or fainter . . or might you turn off the electricity that charges it altogether?
Then again, even though your big wide rut carries your fear, the rut and the fear are known quantities to you. Do you perhaps feel safer inside the rut you know, than you do in the wide open world of unknowns? The rut certainly doesn’t expect anything of you. You made it good and wide . . plenty of room to stretch out. . .
You know, not knowing a whole lot about electric fences, I did a quick check. And I learned something really neat: It seems the current in electric fences is typically set to pulse at 55 to 65 per minute, followed by about a one second stretch of no current. That tells me two things that might be worth your considering in your internal rut scenario.
First, if you’re pretty quick on your mental feet – which I know you are – you should have no difficulty skipping outside that fence any time you want to take a different look at the world. Your choice, of course.
And second, since you’re the creator of your particular electric fence, you get to decide the speed of that current. You even get to turn it off if it no longer serves your purpose. What is that purpose again?
Thanks for sharing my friend. It’s great hearing from you! – g