Detours

I hit a detour this week. I had a vision for how I wanted things to go in a certain area of my life. I knew there were a lot of variables, and I was prepared for some bumps, traffic jams and the like. I was not prepared for a full-on detour.

But after I moped around for about a day I took hold of myself and started to look for some perspective. The truth is, life is detours. Not “full of” detours. Is detours. Every truism on the topic–You plan, God laughs; Life is what happens while you’re making other plans–became a cliché for a reason. You can fight it, you can rage at the inevitable, or you can roll with the punches and see what direction you’re pointed in now. Sometimes you’re headed to the same place, just by a more circuitous route. Sometimes you’re running parallel to the route you set out on. And a lot of times, it turns out you’re exactly where you were supposed to be all along, you just didn’t know it.

In the meantime, I’m also having to admit how myopically focused I have been lately on the things that are not the most important. It is very difficult for me to quiet my mind and live in the moment. That’s what I need to do with my detour right now. Find my way back into the moment.

These moments.