Potholes and Repairs
When things are going smoothly and you are thinking you are on the right route thanks to smartphones, Siri & Google Maps, you lose the signal, and the directions are gone. You have a moment of choice words, maybe a small anxiety attack amid six lanes of unknown freeway rush hour traffic, or maybe you are looking down a rural road with nothing in sight for many miles.
No matter how your directions disappear, if your signal comes back or not, you need to be open to finding your way to a destination.
The path you think you want to take may have construction work over the hill or a huge danger ahead warning sign. Possibly even closed for good and no detour.
Art came into my life early, but I went down many other roads first. I really did not have a map and there were no smartphones with Google Maps. I went down the roads of first job, marriage, abusive marriage, divorce, marriage, career, children, then college, art, baby, stay at home mom. Now I have adult children and my road is under construction again, mixed with an unknown future fork in the road. All the days of life are filled with many detours, stop signs, pass with care signs and some great green lights mixed into the trip.
Every one of us travels our own roads, encountering signs, warnings and detours we never imagined we would be driving by. Some end completely. Some have a cautionary slow speed limit that never seems to end. Some are like a racetrack. And then some have bumps, and deep potholes that can do some serious damage.
We all loath potholes. I personally scrunch up my face into a tight mess, close my eyes, clench my butt cheeks, shake my head, grip tightly to the wheel, and send up a quick prayer of “please, please, please let there be no damage” when I hit those big ones you just cannot avoid.
I am always relieved when there is no extra noises, flat tires, or pieces of the vehicle on the curb afterwards. But there are sometimes, those rare occasions, that the unwanted pothole hit does do damage. We cannot just leave the car there in the pothole, we must move over or move on. We find the path to the repair shop to fix the car and put the pothole behind us and we can put the car in drive again.
I have hit a few deep potholes recently in life, I am moved over, I am fixing it and slowly pushing my accelerator. The repairs and gas can be very spendy, and at times I just do not have enough to refill or repair a certain piece right away. It may require shipping and special handling of part you just cannot get in town. But I am okay with that. My navigation system is coming back online, it is thawing out after this cold spell, and my route to art, rediscovering myself, getting a new battery, and an overhaul is going to get me going to great destinations again.
And find I folks along the way at all the service stations and repair shops. Some have the parts I need, some offer great advice and routes, others feed my body and soul. Then there are a few seasoned travelers that have the off-road maps that get you to those special places. They have traveled the road, been in the ditches, and know how maneuver a few tricky spots, pointing out how to go around a harbor or a mountain. They let you know that sometimes, you need repair people and that the bumpy path leads you to just the right destination at just the right time.
D is for drive.
