Crossroads

It seems life is always at a crossroad, you would think once we are set on a path it would be clear and straight, but life isn’t like that.  It is filled with hills and valleys, potholes and construction, and there are always intersections where you need to make a choice.  So many of us think we are on some kind of super highway where we’re just passengers in a life driven by someone else.

I really believe each intersection we come to offers wonderful choices, if we have the courage to make and own them once made.  So many people today make poor choices and then find fault with society, their families, their friends or anyone but themselves.  I fear these victims of the road; they will never see the crossroads in front of them.   They will go through life kind of like bumper cars banging around into other lives on the road they travel.

Obviously this analogy is not original with me and I don’t do justice to this idea nearly as well as Tom Cochrane did when he wrote “Life is a Highway,” but his concept is compelling.  It ties nicely into my view that each of our lives is a line whose beginning is known, but the end is not.  We don’t know if it will be a long or a short one, but if we are to live it to its fullest we need to stretch it as straight and as taunt as possible.

As Saint Patrick said:

May the road rise to meet you,

May the wind be always at your back,

May the sun shine warm upon your face,

May the rains fall soft upon your fields,

And, until we meet again,

May God hold you in the hollow of His hand.