You may already be aware of the gifts that come into our
lives through the doorway of the unexpected. Certainly our lives frequently provide
us with ample opportunity to see the beauty in broken places. That happened for
me again while traveling from Michigan to North Carolina. When leaving
Michigan, I pushed "avoid tolls" on the GPS because the planned route
was to go South on I-69 to Fort Wayne, Indiana, then East from there before turning South,
rather than the preferred route via 80-90 (toll road).
At one point, following a stop for gas, "Gabby"
(my nickname for the Garmin), got us out on some country roads, rather than
putting us right back onto the highway. Winding around the countryside, she
announced, "continue twenty-one miles..." Oh, my. That was not at all
what we had expected, since we could see the highway from where we stopped at a
McDonalds to give and receive some coffee!
I saw beautiful fields, interesting buildings, and living
what I value, I began choosing to enjoy the process rather than fight the
predicament. In fact, that soon became my inner theme for the trip! We got back
onto the highway, and all once again proceeded according to plan. We arrived in
Charleston, West Virginia, in plenty of time for lunch.
Leaving Charleston, I had expected Gabby to send us South
on 64/77 but we were routed onto State Road 60 instead. While that did not seem right to me as I was consulting the
Road Atlas and the directions program on my iPhone, we forged onward.
Before long we were twisting and turning and going up and
down along what is loving called a Switchback, meaning a roller coaster-like
road with lots of hairpin turns. There were not many opportunities for scenery
because the trees were still in full foliage, but much of the time I was able
to override the slightly headachy, slightly carsick feelings and enjoy the
ride. I was glad I was not driving.
Sleuthing around in the GPS, I discovered that my wide
ride was the result of programming I had put into play but was not conscious of
the ramifications. I realized the reason we had been sent along this winding,
twisting, turning, up-and-down road, was because I had been trying to avoid
something I did not want to experience. How like life that is, right?
My continued sense was that we were taking the long
(maybe wrong) way. The punch line of this saga, is as my suspicion was
mounting, I put in "Current Location to Durham, North Carolina," and my
iPhone showed 3 hours and 47 minutes. A bit further down the road, I again
checked "Current Location to Durham, North Carolina," and was given a
time of over 4 hours.
Fortunately, our next stop was into a visitor's center
that just
happened to be right there!
The bad-news-good-news was that we had indeed gone about
150 miles out of our way, and taken about 3 hours, but just one more leg on
less windy-twisty-uppity-downity brought us into Roanoke, Virginia, and to some
very welcome and surprisingly inviting accommodations: lovely interactions, a
welcome walk, a delicious meal, and much-needed, deep and restful, sleep. We
were able to make it into Durham in plenty of time.
While our time in North Carolina was not affected by
mountain roads, the reflection of that experience, too, is worthy of sharing.
Perhaps that will be the subject of another blog. For now, I will close with today's
message (September 21, 2012) from Neale Donald Walsch:
...that
just when it looks like life is falling apart, it may
be
falling together for the first time.
I have learned
to trust the process of life, and not so
much the
outcome. Destinations have not nearly as
much value as
journeys.
So maybe you
should let things fall apart at this
juncture if
that's what's happening. Don't hang on so
tenaciously.
The nice thing about things falling apart is
that you can
pick up only the pieces that you want...
