This is the second year that my husband and I have tapped the maple trees in our woods and made our own maple syrup. Making my own food is a total thrill for me; I love the feeling of being self-sufficient and, believe it or not, fresh maple syrup is even more delicious than store bought.
When it comes time to tap the trees there is usually quite a bit of snow on the ground. This year we had about two and a half feet to trudge through. The tree in this picture is about 50 feet off of the main path. So, we trampled down a direct path to the tree and hung up the bucket.
The ideal weather for collecting sap is when it’s above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. The snow melted pretty quickly, over a week or so. Revealed underneath what had seemed to be a perfectly clear pathway was a whole bunch of logs and branches. Our once clear path had become quite difficult to traverse. Especially with a bucket full of sap to manage!
I had to laugh. How often do we make choices that seem to be the best option at the time only to get more information later that proves us wrong?
The thing about decision making is that we can only use the information we have at any given time. We can try to guess the future, but you never know exactly what you’re going to get until you get there. Committing to any decision is an inherent act of faith in the face of uncertainty.
I sometimes get stuck in the mindset that once I’ve committed to something I must stay on the path no matter what. But one of the traits of resilience is to be flexible. Being flexible in decision making means being aware of what’s working and what’s not; taking regular stock of the facts to see if perhaps it’s time to make a new choice.
I also have a tendency to be so caught up in what I think is supposed to be happening that sometimes I miss what’s actually going on. In this case, the new “facts” (branches) were literally tripping me up. It was not hard to see that it was time for reassessment. Sometimes the situational changes are less obvious.
Slowing down enough to take in new information, to assess what’s really going on gives me a much better chance of making decisions and choices based in reality. And decisions based on reality have a much better chance of a having positive outcomes.
When it comes time to tap the trees there is usually quite a bit of snow on the ground. This year we had about two and a half feet to trudge through. The tree in this picture is about 50 feet off of the main path. So, we trampled down a direct path to the tree and hung up the bucket.
The ideal weather for collecting sap is when it’s above freezing during the day and below freezing at night. The snow melted pretty quickly, over a week or so. Revealed underneath what had seemed to be a perfectly clear pathway was a whole bunch of logs and branches. Our once clear path had become quite difficult to traverse. Especially with a bucket full of sap to manage!
I had to laugh. How often do we make choices that seem to be the best option at the time only to get more information later that proves us wrong?
The thing about decision making is that we can only use the information we have at any given time. We can try to guess the future, but you never know exactly what you’re going to get until you get there. Committing to any decision is an inherent act of faith in the face of uncertainty.
I sometimes get stuck in the mindset that once I’ve committed to something I must stay on the path no matter what. But one of the traits of resilience is to be flexible. Being flexible in decision making means being aware of what’s working and what’s not; taking regular stock of the facts to see if perhaps it’s time to make a new choice.
I also have a tendency to be so caught up in what I think is supposed to be happening that sometimes I miss what’s actually going on. In this case, the new “facts” (branches) were literally tripping me up. It was not hard to see that it was time for reassessment. Sometimes the situational changes are less obvious.
Slowing down enough to take in new information, to assess what’s really going on gives me a much better chance of making decisions and choices based in reality. And decisions based on reality have a much better chance of a having positive outcomes.
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