The Road Map

Life can be unfair on any given day. We can wake up in the morning feeling all is well in our world, the sun shining bright in the sky and the breeze gently blowing through the trees. Then you walk out the door and bam the clouds roll in, dark, full and bursting with rain.

Life is tough; there is no doubt about that. Every day holds a new adventure, sometimes they are wonderful and sometimes they are painful but every turn we take along the road of life we are offered a new opportunity. Life is full of obstacles and adversities we must strive to overcome but life is also full of kindness and beauty and generosity. Life is full of beautiful moments and yes it is also full of traumatic ones as well but the truth is this: it’s what you do with those moments that truly define your character.

We can keep the rage inside, allow hate to overcome us, distort our view and consume us with a need to inflict our pain on others. This is one way to deal with the detours life brings our way but I don’t recommend this myself. Honestly it only breeds more pain.

Is it easy to turn the contempt we feel inside for life’s blows into a turbulent ride? Yes, I understand this contempt. Sometimes our pain is so deep so fierce that is all we can see but sometimes it’s not about taking the easy road. No, sometimes it’s about taking the road less traveled allowing the mishaps in life to transform us into better people.

Maybe what we need is a fresh take on life, a way to turn our hurt into blessings. Now don’t get me wrong we all struggle with the road of life and all the twists and turns we are guided through. Sometimes the map we are given is torn from the start. Maybe we miss opportunities we thought best but maybe without those missed experiences we would not have been blessed in ways we have yet to understand.

I am a breast cancer survivor. Life has not been easy living with this beast of mine ready to jump out from behind the curtain at any time. Yes, my husband lost his job and we struggled, even now we struggle without insurance until July, but these are life lessons. They have defined us, taught us to trust, to believe, made us stronger, and brought us closer as a family. Have we struggled, been to the bottom of the well and come up dry? You bet ya we have! Have I questioned my faith and cried out to God in pain? Yes, I have… but I have also learned to surrender the things in life I cannot change. Instead of giving in to the anger and the resentment as a family we have picked up the pieces and let go of the missing puzzle pieces. One day these pieces will fit just not today.

So for now this giant jigsaw puzzle of life is incomplete but that’s ok. Each day we have together is one more than we had yesterday. So for now a piece doesn’t fit…. Later down the road when the picture is clearer the misshaped pieces will fit and make sense…just not today.

As I close my thoughts for now I want to encourage you to keep fighting, pushing forward but be mindful not to inflict unbridled pain upon your own life. The road map, the compass rose before you can lead you down many roads, take many detours but take the wrong turn and life can come undone. Life is what you make it... remember that. We all have choices, not in what happens to us but in how we handle what happens in our lives.

"Life is what you make it. Always has been, always will be. " ~ Eleanor Roosevelt

Christina