I always used to take one road to a destination and another road home. Just for the variety I think. Or because I could. Or to make my kids wonder, as they certainly did. Maybe I did it to avoid traffic, to get there quicker, or simply to enjoy the drive. In the city there are a million crossroads. In life probably more. Now our drive is divided by interstate, highway and gravel roads. Less traffic, more time for thinking. It begins and ends on this lane that defines home.
Funny how life changes our roads. Or is it the roads that change our life? In a million years I never would have thought I'd travel gravel. In those same million years I never would have thought I'd leave the only home I knew. I still marvel at where we ended up.
It is different than I ever dreamed and better than I expected. At first I signaled every turn on the gravel road. Now I know there is no one to notify of my turn. Sometimes I do signal out here. Force of habit, or maybe I like the clicky noise my blinker makes. After years of signaling, it's rather a treat to not...ummm...signal.
Sometimes we are amazed to see another car and laugh at our absurdity. Sometimes, I admit longing to see a familiar car coming up the drive. But mostly, I'm giving thanks for the new roads we cross.
I never used to enjoy saying Merry Christmas or Happy New Year. I mean, really, did you have any clue if it was going to be Merry or Happy. Why ask for trouble? In fact, I can remember one New Years Eve going to a party, back when I was skinny. I chose that day to start my diet. Hellooooo, was I nuts? My logic, pathetic as it was, was that if I couldn't eat reasonably then, I couldn't on a regular day. So by all means do not take pleasure in the festivities, because it wasn't safe to be festive. I kid you not, I used to be that person.
That was years ago, and I'm not that person anymore. hfewwwwww!!!! Maybe we all have times like that in our life, where we are simply afraid to live. Perhaps we are a seed and our time to blossom has not arrived.
But, thankfully it happens. And it is cause to celebrate. Life is really too short not to. Celebrate it all, the good and the bad. Each has a life force to mold us into a better me and you. If I had to do it again...I'd surf that buffet of party food like it was my last meal. Surely I passed up some potato chips that night, egads what was I thinking!! Maybe there was chocolate with my name on it, and yet, I said no, no chocolate for me. There were toast's to good times and I held back.
So here is the lesson....don't hold back..... Embrace, savor and taste the goodness. Plain and simple, celebrate.
