Something told me it was wrong, but I just kept going anyway.

It was a perfect day for a ride through the woods. Crisp but not cold, and the morning sun was filtering through the colorful leaves of the season. It was the annual 10 mile charity trail race taking me and my mountain bike through gravel fire roads and off-road grass and root-covered trails within the confines of a local conservation reserve. 

Half way through the course and things were looking good. I was making good time and my legs felt strong. Ahead of me was another rider who had passed me a bit earlier. With the course poorly marked it felt good to have someone in the distance ahead of me to guide me through the remainder of the ride.

Or so I thought.

As we both headed down the only paved section of the course I noticed the open gate of a fire road which looked somewhat familiar. I participated in this event a year ago and I remember the course actually turning at this junction. But with no sign indicating I should turn, I instead decided to continue following the rider in front of me. As logical as that sounded, I soon learned that the rider I was following wasn’t actually participating in this event at all. He was just out for a solo ride through the woods at the same time we all were. 

Ouch.

My intuition was correct. I should have turned down that fire road and when I eventually stopped to check my GPS location I realized I was now significantly off course and well behind schedule.

As I made my way back uphill to the course I wasn’t very happy with me. I overrode the wisdom of my intuition in favor of something visibly more tangible. I let my eyes overrule my instincts which took me away from my path and wasted a lot of my time and energy.

Sometimes our lack of trust in what we believe to be true about ourselves takes us off the course of a life we instinctively know we should be living. Sometimes fear makes us trust more of what our eyes see instead of trusting what our soul feels. We willingly chase fanciful ideas, accept uncomfortable situations, and embrace questionable people in hopes they will guide us forward when we know on some level their guidance and presence will never get us to where we know we are intended to be.

As has been said, the longer we stay on the wrong bus the more expensive it is to get back home. 

Yup.

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