大象传媒

Sarah Joseph, editor of a Muslim lifestyle magazine

聽We holidayed in Wales last week--my husband, son, two daughters, and the dog.聽 We enjoyed a good few days doing nothing more than lounging around; my son flying his drone鈥攕howing us the nearby sites without us even having to leave the garden.

But then we decided to be adventurous.聽This included a trip on two-wheeled, self-balancing scooters. I didn鈥檛 fall off. Yay! Go me!

Plus an assault-course 40 feet up in the trees, which included jumping from platforms and landing face first into cargo nets. But heh ho! I only sustained about twelve bruises!

The trip also included a walk in the forest.
The start was uneventful, although uphill and bumpy, and we all moaned.
After an hour, we decided to return home, but which way back? A series of turns had us deeper into the forest. We doubled back on ourselves. At one point we even followed the dog鈥攚e reasoned that his decision making couldn鈥檛 be worse than ours.

Eventually, we got signal on the phone. But forest paths aren鈥檛 that clear on GPS, and we ended up in another dead-end. We were tired. It was hot. We鈥檇 run out of water and snacks a long time ago. The phone was showing us a path 500 metres ahead, but there was no way to it. We thought we鈥檇 weave through the deeper parts of the forest. BIG MISTAKE!

We ended up head high in brambles. My husband and son took turns to clear a path 鈥� smashing at the brambles with a stick. The rest of us took turns carrying the dog!
Four hours later, we scrambled up to a path. It was rough, and bumpy, the type of path we had moaned about earlier in the day, but now it was a beauty to behold.
It was another hour until we were back to where we started, but we had a sense of direction, and the relief was palpable.

A Muslim prayer asks God to 鈥渟how us the straight path鈥�. Life doesn鈥檛 always gift us straight and easy pathways. We can be lost, surrounded by what can feel like no win options. But I believe by fighting our way through, we can get to a path, and even if it鈥檚 bumpy, it will hopefully be a joy to embrace.