"Choose your ruts carefully..."
"Choose your ruts carefully, you'll be in them a looong time" I have told this story a half dozen times now, and it seems to resonate, so that deserves Facebook documentation I guess.
As I remember, the story goes -- as the settlers moved west (Oregon trail and all), they would leave one settlement after the next, and common farewell advice was "choose your ruts carefully, you'll be in them a long time." Apparently, as the wagon moved over the unhewn land, the wheels would dig deeeeep ruts. So deep, there was no escape until the next settlement. Basically, once you were in a rut, you were in it until the next way-point.
The analogy is obvious. Humans are creatures of habit. And I have learned that my habits either lead me good places or deep pits. So choose the rut carefully - I live in them often many times longer than I ever imagine at the outset.
And to quote sources -- If I remember correctly, this was Kirk Strand in one of his Sunday morning messages. He had a lot of little parables like that. Little seeds that maybe, by now have sprouted into something between a weed and a bush in my heart.
