Living Life to the Fullest
Article: Wisdom    

No Matter Where You're Headed
(© 2000 Tammy Moon)

It struck me one day while driving-how similar our lives are to the highways we traverse.

There are barriers erected on either side to keep us from veering off course.  Personality quirks and character traits, developed over time, like safety nets.  We depend on the ditches to drop into when someone accidentally smashes through our defenses; a warning of treacherous trees or the desolation of desert on either side.  And like the false sense of safety we get from being cooped up inside ourselves, we're really only one bumped fender, broken window or crushed windshield away from the elements of disaster.    

We cruise along, avoiding speed bumps and potholes that might slow us down.  Our family and friends become the median strip between us, catching all the wreckage of our lives.  Like human detritus, in some sort of demilitarized zone, there's no real peace as we pass along going the other way, just an absence of conflict if we're lucky.

It doesn't seem as though the machines we drive come equipped with anti-lock brakes anymore.  Or maybe it's that we, the drivers of our lives, lack good judgment, reasonable reason, or the sensibility to slow the pace.  Instead, we continue to hurtle headlong along familiar routes, never once considering what it might be like to use the emergency brake.

It doesn't matter the destination, only that you arrive-whole enough to talk about all the roads you've taken, wise enough to appreciate the course you've charted for others, for your journey is never solitary.  No matter where you're directed, there are others headed there too.  The trick is to negotiate safe passage, while allowing others to do the same.  And if now and then the warnings force you to slow for construction, be grateful that there's always room for improvement, that no path is free from pitfalls and that despite the occasional accidents, most usually make it. 

Tammy is a writer and photographer.  She can be reached at moon@moonbeamspublishing.com