An Unfamilar Road

The road wasn’t on the map, but…I can’t imagine one named Personal Discovery would be.  If it were, I wonder how many people would purposely take that road.  Most of us have a general idea of where we want to go in life, but few know the best possible route to get there.  The average person would say that entails the least amount of detours and the straightest, fastest path with the ultimate destination of “success”.  But just like trying to get to a home in a new development, sometimes the directions aren’t clear on how to get there.  Sometimes, the roads aren’t on the map yet.  So we find ourselves right smack in the middle of trying to figure out the way for ourselves.

     An unmarked, uncharted road can be a scary thing but a familiar road can become mundane.  You start to wonder if there is another way… another course that possibly could lead you to a more fulfilling existence.  Most of these contemplations occur when you are weary.  You know that just ahead lays a major intersection.  You have seen it many times on your journey through life, but you have always either been too tired or in too much of a hurry to notice what the name of the other road was.  You wonder, as you stand there refueling, if perhaps this time, you should take that other road.  Wonderment however, quickly turns into reason.  You reassure yourself that you are the navigator of your ultimate destination.  Success is found by taking your road and you know the way.  You don’t know the other way.  You don’t know its name.  You don’t know what the outcome of taking this new path would be.  You have never seen that road on a map.

Hundreds of times you have had this exact same conversation with yourself.  Hundreds of times your road has won.  But all it takes is one time to get you off course.  Maybe it was intentional.  You defied yourself beyond all your reasonable doubts.  Or maybe it was that your own way was so familiar you simply weren’t paying attention anymore.  You were texting while driving, or changing the radio station, and all of a sudden you look up and you are no longer on your road.

That is what happened to me.  I did not intentionally take the new road.  In fact, once I looked up and noticed the path was no longer familiar, I was mad.  Mad at the inconvenience this was going to cause my life.  Mad at the fact I now had no idea where I was going.   I was not paying enough attention to notice the name of the street.  I had mistakenly gotten myself onto a one-way course, with the only sign stating the next available exit was in an undisclosed number of miles.  What was I supposed to do now?  At first, I dug my heels in and out of pure stubbornness I pulled over to the side of the road and just sat there.  I couldn’t believe the nerve of the road department, the people responsible for this change in direction.  Who on earth puts a one-way road, with no predetermined exit available right along-side my personal life road?  Who gave them permission?  Was someone trying to sabotage my life?  I decided to take a personal survey.  In a classic case of denial I was able to come up with nothing of my own doing that had led me to this path that I was now on.  I was there simply because of someone else’s fault and I was determined to get through the detour as quickly as possible and get back onto my familiar road.  With resolve, I pulled back onto the road and began my journey to do just that.  Get through.

It took about a week of driving on my own for me to exhaust all of my out loud curses regarding my predicament, when I noticed a woman walking on the side of the road a short distance ahead.  She was the first person that I had come across and as I drew closer I recognized her to be a friend.  I had actually never met her before, but something deep inside me realized that she was on this road for me, that she would not hurt me and that she was there to help me get through this detour of my life.  I pulled over and asked her if she would ride with me and show me the way to the end of this road.  She responded by telling me she had been waiting for me…waiting…for me.

...to be continued!