Go Back to the Start

Ever have to stop what you are doing, and completely start over?

Ever have some grand plan that you realize is not going to materialize?

I had that happen this week. 

I was stranded in Littleton, NH with some friends. We were biking the 82-mile Cross New Hampshire Adventure Trail, a set of rail trails, dirt roads, and bike paths that stretch from Vermont to Maine. We started in Woodsville, headed toward Littleton. Once we finished the first segment, we planned to Uber back to get the cars.

Littleton is generally a hopping place this time of year, with lots of shops, restaurants, and bars. It’s a busy time in the northern White Mountains with lots of hikers and leaf-peepers on their way.

The app showed lots of options: Uber X, Uber Comfort, Uber XL, Uber Pet, and Comfort.

But it quickly became clear that although Uber was searching far and wide for a driver for us, none appeared to want to take us on a Sunday afternoon.

Either there are only a few Uber drivers and they were all at a Labor Day BBQ, or there are none.

We laughed about this. Even though Littleton is a small town of only 6,000 people, it has a vibrant downtown, so we just assumed there would be some locals making a living shuttling people around.

Apparently, that’s not the case.

So, we did the next best thing—we went to Schilling Beer Company to have a pint. Perhaps we could find a loner who wanted $50 to make a random drive to Woodsville. 

The bartender at Schilling confirmed, “Yeah, you won’t find an Uber here. Littleton is a black hole.” 

While finishing our pints, we tried Lyft and Hiking Angels too, along with some random local taxis. No one was available. One even said, “Everyone else made their reservations for this weekend weeks ago.”

Well, that’s helpful.

Our group agreed that as soon as our Combover IPAs were done (yes, that is what they were called), we would have to hop back on our bikes and head back. 

We had no other choice but to turn around and bike back to our cars. A thunderstorm and night were both set to arrive in about two hours. 

By the time we arrived, we had clocked 50 miles in one day. 

Sixty miles of the trail still to go.

These things happen, though.

Sometimes, we just have to go back to the start.

We had to let go of any grand plans we had and go back to the beginning. 

Ever have to start over like that yourself?

To let go of an idea you had about what your situation or life was going to be, and reframe in order to begin again?

I had to do that when I got divorced. I always thought I would be married for life—but when it was clear I needed to move on, I had to let go of any clinging I had done to a white picket fence in my mind.

I had to do that about having multiple children. I always thought I would have a few. But it was clear with my marriage ending and then my life situation for a while that I would have just the one kid. (Still, that’s pretty special—I realize there are many people who have to let go of the idea of even that.)

I had to go back to the start when a job I loved ended—when my team was laid off.

When have you had to go back to the start?

And how did you create a new perspective of yourself and your life?

During COVID, when the world shut down, we all had to go back to start.

To reassess.

To think again about who we are and what we want.

Sometimes we have to start by letting go of different emotions. Anger, perhaps—or at minimum, bitterness or resentment. Grief can catch us off guard at times, and we have to work through that too. 

Sometimes we think one door closes and that’s the end of it. It’s either the door is open, or it is not. 

In reality though, sometimes we have lots of options.

In these moments of facing starting over, we can always ask, “What are the options I can't see right now?”

After our faux pas in Littleton, we lined up a hiking angel who helps moves hikers from one place to the next to help us the following day. That helped us complete another significant section of the trail. 

In the end, we won’t get through it all, because we have only two more days. But someday, we’ll come back to finish the last 24 miles.

Clearly, we aren’t meant to make it all the way to Maine on this trip.

But someday we will finish. And then, we can send away for those colorful stickers that says Cross NH Adventure Trail. 

It’s always good to get a sticker.

English author Arnold Bennett said, “The chief beauty about time is that you cannot waste it in advance. The next year, the next day, the next hour are lying ready for you, as perfect, as unspoiled, as if you had never wasted or misapplied a single moment in all your life. You can turn over a new leaf every hour if you choose.” 

Bennett wrote 34 novels, 13 plays, and 7 volumes of short stories. Clearly, he knew a thing or two about starting over.

Where in your life might you need to go back to the beginning?

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