Signs...continued.

"How far are we from where we need to be?"

As parents?  As partners?  Good question.

It's all a bit of a trip isn't it?  This life we travel through.  A journey.  An odyssey sometimes.  An odyssey frequently. 

There are certainly course corrections.  The u-turns/back-tracks/about-faces we make to get back on the right track when we find that we are headed in the wrong direction.  Then there the thousands of tiny adjustments we make just to stay in themiddlebit of the road.  To not crash into something.  And when you're happy about where you're going...and who you're going with...it's an easier trip.

Happy.  Yep.  I've been loving myself a lot more lately.  No.  Not that kind of self-love.  What kind of blog do you think this is?  I've assembled a perfectly respectable collection in theMiddlebit of everything else I'm doing and I may have slipped up a bit here, and maybe here, and most certainly here...but no real harm done.  This kind of self love must be the Fahrvergnügen of this trip of life.  The I like what I see, this must be the right road, the scenery is fantastic, I'm no longer being held hostage in the trunk kind of love.  And I've been thinking about signs again.

There are signs along the way.  A wise girl said to me there are always signs if you know when to look for them.  Yes.  True.  Sometimes we see those signs.  Other times, we ignore them.

Here's one I apparently missed.

It's is entirely possible that I did see this sign, but thought that my skills were such that I could just keep moving along at my normal speed and accommodate the presence of children. Yeah.  I was totally wrong about that.  There's a whole list of things you need to do differently in the zone of your life that has children running all over it.  All.  Over.  It.  This is their zone and I drove right into it.  I took this route on purpose, but I've only just realized I'm going to need to slow down on some things, pay closer attention to a few others and focus a little more on the important stuff if I'm going to navigate through this without hurting the children, my other passengers, my self, and my driving record. Yes.  Go slow.  There's children. 

And then there's this one...

A narrowing road forces your focus like a laser beam and it would certainly be helpful to know those times in your life were up ahead before you headed into them at full speed.   A narrowing road gives you fewer options, yes.  But once you choose your route, and you feel like you're on the right course...how much wiggle room do you really need?

Many signs pass us by when we're on a familiar road.  Our level of comfort is such that we don't need to look at those street signs.  We know the speed limit.  We know where the stop signs are.  We just go.  But my awareness is heightened these days because I have recently chosen an unfamiliar road.  A new trip.  I've headed down the road without directions, but with a general idea of where I'd like to end up.  "How far are we from where we need to be?"  And I'm looking out for this sign.

You'll let me know if I missed it won't you?  Fellow travelers.  This sign will signal that at least for the next leg of my journey I can focus my attention somewhere other than the potential crevice I might fall into if I'm not watching where I'm going.

Thanks.  I'll send you the directions when I get where I'm going.