We’re All Looking for a Little Light in the Darkness
A few years back, I was running the Appalachian Trail outside of North Adams in western Mass. One of those crisp New England autumn evenings where the air’s sweet with the smell of foliage and silence fills the forest.
I’d planned to be done well before sunset.
But somewhere between one wrong turn and the next, I got a little turned around.
The sun dipped fast, and darkness enveloped the woods.
No headlamp. No flashlight. Just me, the trees, and the dimming trail in front of me.
I looked down at my fitness watch. Not for time or pace – but for light.
The only source of light I had.
You’d find more light on a microwave dial! But that little screen glowed just enough to show the next step. Not the whole trail. Just the next few feet.
And that was enough.
I hiked the last few miles like that.
No sweeping views. Just a tiny circle of light and the certainty of safety and comfort at the end.
I think that’s what a vision really is.
Something you believe in enough that it lights up the path when everything else disappears.
A vision doesn’t need to illuminate the whole future.
It just needs to give you enough courage to take one more step.
So if the sun has set and you feel like you’re in the middle of your own dark stretch…
Just keep your eyes on your North Star.
It might be the only light you need.
