A few blocks away from where I stayed with my host family in Buenos Aires, Argentina sits the widest avenue in the world: Avenida 9 de Julio. Countless times during my months of studying there, I crossed its sixteen lanes on foot. An incredibly wide thoroughfare, it was utterly chaotic. Apart from the traffic, there were people performing or begging for money at traffic lights, pedestrians were everywhere, and road rage was alive and well, to say the least.
A few blocks away from where I currently live is a trail that spans several cities. Winding through both wooded and residential areas, it provides respite in the midst of the busyness we live in. At some points, it is too slender to run or bike beside another person; overgrown foliage, the banks of a river, and steep drop-offs present dangers that require keen focus.
La Avenida 9 de Julio requires keen focus also, but it is vastly different than that which is required of me on the trail. On the former, I have to be very much in tune with everything that is going on around me. I have significantly more space to move about on it, which presents itself as freedom but is actually quite elusive considering the surrounding disorder. There is a multitude of distractions, dangers, and other people to consider. On the trail, I need only be concerned with my next step. There are no distractions, no dangers, and no crowds of people to cause me to re-route. The trail is far quieter, much less chaotic, and certainly lonelier, but it is also wrought with unmatchable peace.
At one point in my life, I certainly considered la Avenida 9 de Julio to be the choice path. I thought I needed to be in all the things with all the people in order to succeed. In more recent years, the trail life has been far more attractive to me. Less noise, less people, less distractions, more solitude, more silence, more peace. As I finish my thirty-sixth trip around the sun, I feel drawn to live the trail life in the midst of la Avenida.
I certainly choose the narrow path, but I live in a disorderly and, at times, lawless world. The question is, how do I walk in unmatchable peace in the midst of sheer pandemonium?