Shotgun!

I have always loved road trips. Driving down a long stretch of highway, the breeze blowing through the car, radio blaring some great tunes, approaching destination. The anticipation gets me going every time.

The passenger rear view mirror states ‘objects in mirror are closer than they appear’. The reason this particular mirror is curved, or convex, is it gives the driver a wider field of view. (I know you are all mind blown right now, right?! LOL)

It makes sense. It’s good that it is this way for safety reasons… while driving you can see that those things which are encroaching upon you are closer than they appear. So we take it for what it is and move accordingly.

What is unsafe, however, is ignoring this fact. Hoping that the thing you see coming isn’t as close… that it won’t catch up to you before you decide to change lanes instead of just slowing down and waiting.

It’s crazy how life catches up to you. You spend years overdoing, overachieving, overcompensating, over-qualifying… you just truck along above the speed limit, bobbing and weaving. Gettin’ it. Oh, you see it coming. And if you are like me, you speed up a little more, hoping you are going fast enough that the overwhelming will not overtake you; living as if the opposite of the mirror warning was fact. Like the object appearing was farther away than it actually appeared. Negative Ghost Rider.

It all starts with a little honk that gets you to look around, but you keep on. You hear it again so you take the cruise control off, but still use the lead foot. And then again. And then again. And then life hits, full force. You do multiple 360 out of control spins and incur a massive case of whiplash, not to mention the physical damage done. And you find you have no choice but to come to a complete stop.

This is where I found myself the first 6 months of this year. I had been unable to do much of anything other than reaquire my bearings and wait to heal. Many days it felt as though I was just sitting there on the side of the road as life was passing me by.

Today, however, by the grace of God, I find myself back out on the road of life. I am still in need of releasing some control and so I will be riding shotgun for awhile as I am still a bit tired and weak, and some wounds are still in the healing process. I’m not good at not being in control so I am a ‘back seat driver’. I have no doubt I may get a little anxious at some turns and stops and I may even ask to pull over so I can take the wheel every so often. But I am learning that riding shotgun isn’t so bad. It gives you a much better vantage point.

I know I will get to where I’m going in time so I plan on sitting back, letting life lead me and just enjoying the journey as often as possible. Because here, I get to rest and take in the scenery.

And I must tell you, the view of my upcoming destination is quite spectacular and I am in a major state of great anticipation.