Life is a Road Under Construction

They say life is a long road to haul. If that is the case, then our trials are potholes and road construction.

We can try to drive around the potholes, swerving and reorienting to get where we need to go. Or, we can hit them head on and hope that it doesn't do much damage. We hit road construction and sometimes have to wait to get what we want or take a detour--long or short--to get where we need to go.

Sometimes life is a smooth straight road; safe, but monotonous. Other times it is twisty turny with a sharp dropoff at the ledge. When we were young, most of us had guardrails to keep us along the straight or curvy roads. Adulthood hits and those guardrails are gone. What may have been a speeding bullet of a drive as a kid now becomes a white-knuckle drive on a mountain road.

We can choose which roads we travel, usually, unless detour comes and shoves us off of our safe straight road. The changes can sometimes bee seen far off--lots of warning signs before the construction. Other times you hit the orange-barrel mess without the least bit of warning.

Go through or go around. If you had a choice, take the detour or stay the course through the construction, which would you take? Depends. Can you see the end of the construction in the distance? Does the detour look smooth and short? Sometimes the decision is simple, but many times there is no simple answer.

The biggest thing to realize is the are no wrong answers. You take which road you get and you keep on driving. Yes, there may be times where you take the long or the dangerous road, but you are still moving along.

Don't park. There may be times that you want to stop, but don't. You stagnate, holding on to visions of past roads, while never looking ahead to what new road is before you. You park and you can get run over--awash in depression and without hope of future travels. Sometimes you may need to stop briefly and take in your options of roads, but don't wait too long.

Don't speed. There are cops out there: your body can be in overdrive only so long. Speeding takes away from life's pleasures. On the other hand, it may be tempting to speed over detours or through construction, but then you won't see the potholes till it is too late!

So keep on driving, watch out for potholes and choose your routes carefully, but don't take too much time deciding.