Chris and I just got back from spending a long weekend at the beach. This time we found a place at Surfside Beach in South Carolina that suited our needs and we were thrilled that Aaron and Erin were able to come spend a few days with us.
The weather cooperated for a few days but we had our fair share of rain and gloomy skies but you know what? I didn’t really care. I had my family and the beach out my door so I was happy.
Looking out over our balcony onto the beach there was a stream that ran next to our set of condos to the ocean. There was a little footbridge over the stream up close to the buildings but as you looked out over the beach the stream was fairly wide and deep at some points during the day depending on the tide. 
What I observed day after day was how people chose to cross that stream.
Some came up to it and just stopped, turned around and returned walking the direction that they came from.
Some approached it by backing up, running and taking a flying leap across it hoping to not touch the water.
Some casually waded through it.
Some did a little hop, skip and jump across.
Many people had dogs on the beach as well and when the dog walkers came most of them just walked on through that stream no matter how deep or wide it was.
It got me to thinking about how I approach life. When there is a little stream that pops up unexpectedly do I avoid it? Do I run right through it without thinking of the consequences? Or do I wade through cautiously –watching for the unexpected rock or shell that might trip me up?
My observation of the people on the beach over those few days was that they all approached the same situation in a variety of ways and yet each way worked out well for them. For most of them they were able to get to the other side of that stream successfully. For some who couldn’t be bothered with the intrusion in their beach walk they simply switched directions and went the way that they came. No big deal. Crossing the divide came in a myriad of ways.
My lesson is that each of us is different and we can take on streams (or challenges) in a variety of ways. No one way is correct or incorrect. They all have their value. Lesson learned – before I think that I have the only right way to do something stop and consider that there may actually be many ways to accomplish the same thing.
So tell me —how would you have crossed that stream had you happened upon it?
