You Old Goat!

So here's the story.  My wife and I were hiking last summer.  Glacier National Park.  We were coming down after visiting Sperry Glacier, a truly magnificent hike.  We were descending across a scree field on a trail cut into the side of the mountain when we came upon a family of four stopped in the trail.

To give you a picture of that, it wasn't really that steep of a slope but you didn't want to fall off.  It wasn't like the side of a cliff or anything but the trail was a bit narrow. 

Directly in front of them was a mountain goat, munching on some grass on the side of the trail.   There wasn't really room to go around the goat so these folks were stopped in their tracks.

The family included grandma, granddad, son-in-law, and 7 year old granddaughter (mom and a newborn were at the lodge at the trailhead).  They were from North Dakota and were afraid to pass the goat, who was a bit menacing, bobbing his head up and down as they approached. 

Now keep in mind, this was a wild animal.  Bigger than most of the goats we see around here, he did have those curved horns that we assume he uses for butting things.   This family was wise to proceed cautiously. 

So I pulled on my full "country boy" persona and stepped forward boldly, clacking my hiking poles and yelling at the goat "Billy, get off my trail."

The goat just looked at me.   "I don't have time for this, Billy, get off my trail!"  He moved to the side of the trail.

"That's not enough.  Git on up that hill!"  To which Billy ran on up the hill, nimbly, like mountain goats do.  We all passed safely.

On down the trail, we stopped and talked to the family.  The little girl was in awe.  "Mister, how did you do that?" I told her "well, honey, me and that goat just speak the same language--one old goat talking to another old goat."

The little girl was just all "wow" and everything while the grandparents laughed out loud (lol to teenagers and millenials).  As you might have suspected, there is a message behind this whole story. 

In recent weeks, I've talked about making decisions, not resolutions and about what you might do to stay healthy.

Well, sometimes you just have to take charge.  Take charge of your health.  Make those decisions that allow you to be the person you might need to be.

Take charge of where you are.  Take charge of your work environment.  Take charge of your family situation.  Take charge of your life.

Like with that old goat, sometimes you have to move boldly.  And bravely.  I was confident that I could handle whatever that old goat could come at me with.  Being brave is not about having no fear, it's about being able to look fear in the face and tell it to move out of the way.

It's about taking charge of the situation, your situation.  Know that inside of you is all you need to achieve your dreams, whatever they may be.