The Road and the Journey

photo by Jen Houlette

"Never let a stumble in the road be the end of your journey." ~unknown

The journey is sometimes winding and often contains bumps. But even the smallest stumble can be navigated depending on the road taken.

Will the stumble be a road block?

Or will it simply be a detour?

The ever-changing, sometimes disconnecting, never-ever-the-same landscape of technology in which my journey currently resides is always full of bumps.

Whether it's a slow connection, severed fiber cables in the area, deleted users that need re-adding, websites that aren't working but they were yesterday, questions without answers, lack of time, etc. ..... there's one thing that doesn't change --- there will always be stumbling blocks, bumps in the road, unexpected detours, and an ever-winding road.

It comes with the job. No day is ever the same. And the thing that makes it impossible to just "go through the motions" is the same thing that makes it exciting and sometimes scary. I find myself thinking - "What vehicle did I jump in and what road am I going down?"

But one thing I do know is this...... even though I may have an unclear road map and there will undoubtedly be bumps no matter what side road I find myself on, each time I find myself on a rocky road I have a choice.

A choice to see it as a detour on my way to a great destination along the journey.

Or a choice to see it as a disastrous road block that stops me in my tracks and disables me from continuing down the path to greatness.

I will choose the first.

Because a detour is sometimes an opportunity - a Plan B - a better way - a chance to round up road-side helpers. :)

Because a detour is not a dead end. It's a chance to try again, to turn the day around in a positive way.

Because a detour is the perfect way to model resilience, flexibility, and vulnerability.

So I will continue on the journey using this quote as motivation to keep going, keep trying, and keep my head up when things don't go perfectly on the daily road of the journey I'm choosing to take. Join me!

                "Never let a stumble in the road be the end of your journey." ~unknown

A Time to Pause

One of my favorite bookmarks

Much like a bookmark is a pause between pages, my life has been somewhat paused between the many layers of the over-scheduled minutes of a mom, wife, friend, teacher, and student.

---starting a new job position, finding time to do two online grad classes and the accompanying readings and assignments, spending time at swim meets watching my daughters, going on college visits, creating 6 videos a week, meeting with friends, keeping up the housework, volunteering and serving on the swim club board, and much much more ---

Am I complaining? No. I'm blessed to have the opportunities to do the things I love, and the days when the many things I do pile up just a little too high, I wonder why I chose the #oneword "create" last year -- but the positive things that have been created have outweighed the hard times that may have come along with it.

But the last week and a half has been a time to pause and think ...time to spend with family, time to spend catching up on to-do lists, time to celebrate Christmas, time to shop and play and just be.

And as it feels great to move the bookmark further ahead as pages are read, information is absorbed, and stories are enjoyed, it also feels great to just leave the bookmark in place and pause.

A "pause" is a representation of space.

A "pause" is a temporary stop between starting and stopping.

A "pause" is meant to be a short-lived break. However, one pause that has been more of a dramatic pause has been the break between my blog posts on this blog. It's not that I haven't had a lot of things I could have written about, and it's not that I haven't had support from my blogging community and friends, and it's not that I haven't had numerous inspirational and challenging posts sent my way. It's just the pressure that I put on myself to get things right and say things the way I perceive them to be and sometimes it's easier to just continue the pause instead of trying to break through the wall.

This wall is not easily knocked down. And it only becomes a larger wall the more you stare at it and try to imagine all the ways to break through it.

How do I start? What do I say? Who wants to even read it anyway? These are all questions I asked myself as the weeks and months since my last post.

Now I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions or think that the change of the calendar will somehow magically make things happen, but maybe I'll at least try to pause more often and long enough to try to break through the wall a little at a time.