Last spring, I joined a Meetup group for women in Westchester County, where I live. I was drawn to the hikes they offered and the down-to-earth vibe on their site.
I signed up for a walk organized at Teatown Lake Preservation—a nature preserve with which I’m very familiar. After we circled the lake, several walkers wanted to keep hiking. So I found myself, on my first Meetup excursion ever, leading the group on a hike up the Twin Lakes trail. Though I hadn’t been on that trail in years, I grew up hiking in the Adirondack Mountains. I know how to follow trail markers. Many of the women seemed impressed by my leading skills, though I kept insisting I’m just following markers.
The next weekend, four of us gathered at another nature sanctuary for a longer trek through the woods. Of the four, Sally and I were seasoned hikers. Elaine and Amy wondered at our leading skills in a landscape of crisscrossing paths. Sally and I maintained that leading by following was easy once you knew a few key points.
Up the trail a ways, Elaine mentioned that she’d like to learn to lead hikes someday. In that moment, I happily stepped aside, following behind to guide her in looking up ahead for the colored diamonds posted on trees, watching for turns in the trail, or to stopping at a juncture to make sure the group stayed together. Elaine approached the task with humility and openness. This impressed me because in my many years of teaching, I’d noticed that these exact qualities made a student more teachable.
Elaine soon gained the necessary knowledge and experience and found her rhythm. She paused on the trail, turning back to us with a smile of understanding. Sally answered Elaine’s smile with it’s like connecting the dots or, more accurately, connecting the diamonds.
A spiritual principle of connecting diamonds states that events are like diamonds, with invisible lines connecting them as a part of a much larger plan. Learning to see and follow these lines gives us a smoother, more joyful ride through daily life.
Following trail markers is like seeking the next moment of love and light. Life goes on ahead to mark our path with diamonds—bright inner lights. We need only look for the next diamond, the next opportunity to give and receive love. If we don’t see it, we can walk up ahead a little to check. Where there’s a juncture, we can pause to exercise more care in choosing our path.
On the last leg of the hike, Amy cheerfully bounded forward from the back of line saying she’d like to learn, too. Elaine, I called out, now you can teach Amy! Off they went, while Sally and I smiled and chatted, following their lead in a moment of sweet, simple happiness on the morning trail.