Every Life Needs a Direction

I am so glad I have a GPS on this journey. My Garmin has helped me explore a bit, knowing I just have to press "home" and it will guide me there. Sometimes when I'm using it, I see a sign pointing to some place I want to explore, so I take a different road. When I do this, it always says, "recalculating" and tries to tell me to turn left or turn right to get back on track to my originally programmed destination. This week, since I've been alone and quiet so much, I've started talking back to my Garmin. "Turn left" she says. "NO!" I shout. "I'm not going to!" Yes, I've been talking out loud to the Garmin.

When I started using the Garmin in December (it was an early Christmas present from Sean) I was amazed by its accuracy. At the same time, I wish it gave you affirmations throughout the journey, like:

"Turn right here. Good job!"
"Arriving at destination. You made it!"
"You're doing great!"
"You're almost there!"

It just seems to be a guide that never lets you know how you're doing - unless you miss a turn!

You can choose other voices and other languages on the Garmin, but the default one really sounds best to me. It's a pleasant female voice, even if it is pretty unemotional. The other two American English choices are very monotone and remind me of the way they portray Stephen Hawking on Family Guy or a Speak & Spell (which always had an evil sound to them, if you ask me).

So, when I've programmed a destination, but choose to explore, and the Garmin urges me to turn left and I don't, and it "recalculates" and tells me to turn again, I have to turn it off, often saying out loud, "I'm making my own way!" Of course, I can be pretty bold knowing my electronic guide is just a button push away.

I woke up this morning to a voice. It said, "Every life needs a direction." My eyes opened. It was 7:00am.

I wrote this down (because we should always listen when a voice speaks so clearly) and went back to sleep (because if you know me, you know I am not getting up at 7:00am unless I have to!). I knew this statement would be something I would ponder later.

When I was on one of the roads at the park the other day, I came to a place where the road went in two directions. I wasn't sure which way I should turn, so I just went to the right. As I came to the park exit, I saw that either direction would have led me to the same place since the road was a loop.

I've always felt this way about choices - that more often than not, whatever we choose leads us to the same place. That a choice made with the heart is never wrong, even when it might hurt later.

Most of us travel on roads that are not our own. There are road signs showing us how we "should" travel on the path. Certainly, some signs are there to keep us safe. But on the road of life, we are constantly met with signs that were placed there by rule-makers who came before us. They are things we were taught growing up that have become part of what we now believe - that we get (or don't get) what we deserve, that life is scary and painful, and feelings of shame, of guilt, of powerlessness, of fear.

All of these become the rules of our personal roads, even though we had no choice in making them. But, when we grow up and become the caretakers of our own roads, we do have choices. If you could visualize your path, your road, what would it look like? Would it be full of potholes and lined with signs? I doubt anyone would want that to be their personal road. Mine would be a gently curving path, lined with grass and trees and flowers and plants, with some shade and some sun. Of course there would be a few signs, just in case someone else was on my path, so they would know how to behave. My signs would be simple - a few arrows showing where to go, a couple of signs pointing out significant places along the way, and one rule: no hurting any living thing. This, of course, is the "ideal" path for me, not the one I really have.

When some friends were trying to sell their house, they did some work on the yard to give it curb appeal. It looked great, but one thing was bothering them - an ugly, rusty, metal "no parking" sign on their tree lawn. They had started working it back and forth to loosen it and they told me that they were going to remove it in the middle of the night. Sure enough, a few days later the sign was gone and you would never know it was there in the first place. Yes, this is probably illegal in some way. But it was their house, they had no choice where the sign would go when it was placed there, and they were just trying to make their home more beautiful. This was two years ago and no one has said a word since.

I'm not saying break the law - but when we're talking about your metaphorical road, it is YOUR road and you get to make the rules of your road. If you've ever tried to remove a road sign (ahem, not that I have) then you know the pole is deep, sometimes cemented in the ground, and requires a lot of rocking back and forth to loosen it. Some of our road signs are going to be like that - the hardest ones to remove will be the ones that say how life "should" be - how WE "should" be. These signs are rusty and old from generations of use.

Some people may not ever feel a need to remove their signs. But if you've felt negative feelings of guilt, fear, anger, bitterness - whatever sign is making you feel that, whatever "rule" you think you've broken, needs to be torn from your road. Those signs will never lead you to a place of happiness.

Listen to your voices - the images, feelings, sounds, names, songs, and faces you can't stop thinking about. Those are the places where you will forge new paths. The things that make you feel most alive are the places where your heart longs to be. The "good" feelings are your direction. And every life needs a direction.

So, grab some work gloves and a shovel and sneak out to your road. Start listening to your heart and the things you crave from life. Start making your road one you want to be on. Don't worry - your heart is your personal GPS that will always lead you home.

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