You know it’ll be hard, but you look forward to it anyway. Even so, when the time comes, it’s easy to put off, to turn over and go back to sleep or distract yourself some other way.

Once you’re on the trail, it’s exciting. Everything is fresh, every new bend an adventure. What will you discover? What will you learn about yourself?

Halfway through, the excitement’s turned to drudgery. There’s only one way to go and it’s all uphill. You can’t imagine ever being done. You wonder why you thought this was a good idea.

Then it happens. You can see the end and realize you’ve almost finished what you set out to accomplish. The rush pushes you through.

No matter now many times you go down the path, it doesn’t get easier, in hiking or writing. But you do it again, for the journey, the self awareness and the rush that comes at the end.

Enough analogies. On this Memorial Day, put aside your writing and go for a real hike in the woods.