Wednesday, July 20, 2005
no shortcuts
there are no shortcuts to any place worth going.
-beverly sills
my first two thoughts upon reading it: how true...and...what a bummer. lately the winding and bumpy road of my life has left me wishing for shortcuts at times. but when i stop to consider what taking a shortcut truly might mean, i am pleased to be traveling the path in it's entirety - just think what we might miss out on if shortcuts were allowed.
i'm thinking of those opportune, unexpected or just plain beautiful moments that happen along life's path. i had one yesterday when my bike tire went flat for the third time in a week. my partner and step daughter biked the rest of the way home and came back to pick me up in our pickup truck. while they were gone i successfully took my bike tire off and located the source of the problem with no assistance! it was a rare opportunity to really tackle a bike fix-it on my own, and i was quite pleased with myself at the end of it.
this may be a simple example, but i think it's representative of a larger phenonmenon. after all life is lived in the details, and much of what we learn happens not upon our big breakthroughs but on the sometimes tedious path towards them.
what have you learned lately on one of life's many detours or traffic jams?
when have you benefited from taking the long route rather than attempting the shortcut?
dream big, -kirsten
