Directionally Challenged

Ask Carrie about any trip we have been on and she can tell you a tale of woe about getting lost due to my navigation skills. There was Tulsa, when trying to return to our hotel from the zoo, I turned the map upside down for a better perspective and we ended up on a turnpike heading to another state entirely.

Most recently we were driving from Taos, New Mexico to Blackwell, TX via Roswell. A pretty straight shot on the map but she turned when she should have gone straight (or as she tells it I did not tell her to stay straight and she was only following my directions). Again, we found ourselves on a highway in the wrong direction. Flustered by her anger I looked for an alternative route on the map and we headed South so we could head East then South again. The first leg South was okay. Two lane, paved. Then as we turned east the black top ended and we spent the better half of an hour on a bumpy dirt road with civilization no where in sight. She yelled. I cried. But in the end we pulled into Blackwell that evening safe and sound.

In recent days, weeks, months, years (you see I don’t know where to begin this journey) I have been traveling with a friend to the very depths of hell. Oh sure I have jumped off the path every now and again only to return with renewed hope that is quickly struck down. She has a disease my friend does. Her journey has taken her to the Hill Country, West, and East. Mentally and physically however she has gone South. In recent days she has tried to understand her needs, her actions and the effect they have on the world. I pray that she has turned. That her journey now may be on an emotionally bumpy, dirt road but soon she will be fly along smooth with the wind in her hair.

I’ve hit several bumps on my own journey. At times my inner voice tells me to look in the rear view mirror and regret, rue, hate myself for not avoiding the pot holes. It has taken years to realize this behavior does me no good. Only by looking forward can I move forward. I hope my friend comes to that realization and soon she begins to look at each new day as a new start. Several new starts and you have yourself a month, then a year, then years and before you know it you’ve traveled many miles that you would have never seen otherwise.

On a lighter note, I am going to ask someone for a Garmin Navigation system for Christmas. That way the next time we get lost Carrie can yell at the machine and I can sit comfortably in the passenger seat munching on beef jerky.