Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.  

Helen Keller 

Last weekend I was privileged to walk twenty miles with many friends – from Rockwall to the Dallas Temple.  Usually I would require stunning scenery of ocean, mountain, rivers and lakes to entice me to undertake such an endeavor.  This was an urban hike in every sense of the word – and yet I was surrounded by beauty!  The hours passed so quickly as I walked alongside one friend and then another… each of them beautiful to me.  We never stopped talking – it was so much fun.

At the end of the trek we looked back and knew that it would have been an almost unthinkable ordeal to have walked alone!  How the miles would have dragged (so much cement, ugh!) — and yet it had been such a pleasure.  When we arrived at our destination we were by four more friends dressed in their Sunday best.  They greeted our bedraggled group with hugs and smiles and a few of our aches and pains were diminished.  We climbed into their cars to return to Rockwall and an amazing dinner prepared by yet more friends who had been unable to walk.  They had decorated the gym for the holidays including strands of lights as a false ceiling of sorts.  Something about those lights really struck a chord with me.  It was an “extra effort” that so many people would find unnecessary – but for me it showed a level of caring that I just really appreciated.  (By this point my joints were reminding me of my age and I was anticipating the ibuprofen as much as the brisket.)  These friends sat us down, filled our plates and served us.  We let them.

When I tell people about the walk they focus on the twenty miles.  I hardly thought of that – during the days that followed my mind was occupied with thoughts of friendship and the difference that it made.

Life may have trials, drudgery, pain and mile after mile of looking at cement – but Happiness is possible and I believe it hinges on our Relationships!