I was recalling the other day our honeymoon which involved a bit of driving and on one stretch we were driving from San Francisco to Lake Tahoe. During my 35 years I had become a very time regimented person so it was only natural that I would do a search to find out exactly how long this drive would take us to get to our destination. Not only that but I didn’t like driving – I just wanted to get there. I had it all planned out so that we could reach our destination right on schedule.
Having been married at the end of October, our honeymoon travel got detoured due to snow covered road closures. There went my schedule! This detour took us through a small town with it’s 25mph speed limit and traffic. There went my schedule even more! Even though we didn’t have to be anywhere at any specific time, I was so focused on being ‘behind schedule’ that I missed out on this cool little town. This detour gave us an opportunity to visit this old town that was like going back in time but my mind wasn’t in the moment, it was in the future. Even after reaching our destination, my mind automatically started thinking about our next destination and its schedule. We had a great time, but I wonder what else I missed by not being 100% there, where ever we were.
How true this is for our every day lives? We tend to get so focused on the destination that we miss out on great experiences in our lives. If we focus on just ‘getting through’ college, or getting the kids through school, or getting through this week, we rob ourselves of so many things. How many times do you hear people say “I can’t wait for
for my kids to be in school.” “I can’t wait for my kids to get out of school.” “I can’t wait for my kids to be out of the house.”
Imagine what it would be like to really enjoy and fully experience everywhere we are at all the time. What do you miss out on when you get in the “I can’t wait” mode? What if we took the ‘scenic route’ in life and made a conscious effort to enjoy even the ‘detours’ in life?
Happy travels!