You ever been at a "fork in the road?" Where you are sitting there, standing there, idling there, or just there looking at the scenery around the "fork" just so you don't have to look directly at it. Your eyes glance at it to the left and then to the right, Oh look at that, a pretty flower! See how easy it can be to not address the "fork" and rather look for a spoon, a plate, a cup, or even that pretty flower. However, as with all things adult, there comes a time when your butt gets tired from sitting, your legs hurt from standing, your car is idling a lot rougher than normal, or the pretty flower is gone. There can be no more glances and avoiding. You look at the "fork", what's that, a foot moving forward, wait, what's that? The other foot moving forward. Then before you know it both feet are moving toward the fork, now only if you could get your head to come to a decision before your feet have to go to the left or to the right.
"To dare is to lose one's footing momentarily. To not dare is to lose oneself. ~Soren Kierkegaard"
This statement makes a lot of sense. In the trudging toward that fork in the road, your feet may stumble, trip, slightly hop to the left and right, but at the end of that terrible coordination dance, you end up making the choice you are meant to make. What if you stay right where you are? Taking no chances and holding on to the past, which could include hurt, pain, fear, stress, or that candy bar you regrettfully ate while idling in your car? What do you have to lose by taking a chance? As I see it, you lose the "old" you and gain the "new" you. Granted, with any trade off, there are some issues of having to accept things that you wouldn't normally accept or letting go of the small things that made life "comfortable."
It's odd as I sit and evaluate how far I have come in my own life, the "new" me has had to learn how to be patient (still learning that trait), hold my tongue (sometimes I should it all literal sense do this to stop myself from blurting out the most ridiculous comments), and lose a little control. Okay here it is! I feel the need to have control of everything in my life. But we know who is really in control, the Good Lord above. Him and I still have chats about that whole control thing but somehow I always lose that argument. Back to my control, I want to protect those I love and protect myself from hurt. I want to control the hurt or stress that gets thrown at them. I would even take that hurt and stress for them if I could just so they wouldn't have to deal with any of it. But odd how in the same aspect of protecting those I love I am somehow trying to also protect myself, even with taking on their hurt and stress because if I take on their hurt and stress I control how the situation will play out *see, still trying to control!*. One instance in a Starbucks drive thru comes to mind with a phrase, "You are not Les Miles and I am not the team." Instead of stopping to smell the White Chocolate Mocha Espresso that was handed to me in the midst of a cloudy day in a drive thru, I ran towards protectiveness and hit my own wall. On that particular day, I hit a fork in the road. Maybe I should have idled there for just a bit and enjoyed my coffee with a blueberry muffin.
I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it. ~Pablo Picasso
Picasso sure has a way with words... I cannot get hurt, I cannot allow myself to take a chance, I cannot take a risk, I cannot deal with that chest pain with loss of breath and light headedness that I know is not heartburn. But it's time I deal with getting hurt, learning to take a risk and just jumping without dipping my toe in the shallow end of the pool (a cold pool is sometimes what you need to feel the most exhilarated with slight hypothermia), and that pesky chest pain that has the symptoms of asthma and dizziness. You ever got the worse news possible and you know that sinking feeling, tingling in the back of your neck, chest tightening, heart stopping, and lung sucking? Doesn't it just suck?! I fear that feeling. But I have to learn how to deal with the possibility of that feeling but the beauty is having faith and knowing that it won't happen again. As I see it, taking risks and letting go of the old to find and embrace the new has the biggest chances of heartbreak but the greatest reward of happiness. That's a trade off worth taking and fighting for. What's that? The terrible coordination dance just turned into a waltz....
Adventure is what happens when you just did something stupid. ~Professor Bernie
Life is an adventure. But sometimes we are too busy watching the adventure that we don't realize we can be in it.
and my personal favorite:
We must be willing to let go of the life we had planned,
so as to accept the life that is waiting for us.
Joseph Campbell
This quote by Joseph Campbell should be on the welcome sign out of "Fork in the Road Town".
Don't refuse to go on an occasional wild goose chase - that's what wild geese are for. ~Author Unknown
In closing, you ever been chased by a wild goose? What fun that would be to go hunting for a wild goose and have the goose chase you?! :0) Funny how this statement is so ironic about geese. You see you could go out hunting for all that you look for and when you finally find it, you realize it's all that you want with a slight mind issue but it has some feathers missing, a slight limp from running away but it's now running at you, it could be full of dirt, but the beauty in finding the imperfections is realizing it's perfectly made for you.
No comments:
Post a Comment