Crossing Paths: When Life Gives You Road Signs ...

Trusting the "Guidance Prompt System"

1. Just because the road is paved... Have you had the experience of following your inner GPS (Guidance Prompt System) only to find yourself in an armpit locale? Yeah, me too. And even though the first impulse is to ask with a wail, "Where did I go wrong?" there is another question underneath that is begging to be asked. "Why am I here?" This is a query that implies trust in your GPS and its far-reaching wisdom. Unlike you, it has the whole journey in its hands.

2. Just because you're in Armpit, WY... There are many movies based on this scenario--people headed toward their dream life (job,relationship,stardom) who broke down in "Armpit, WY." (Michael J. Fox's "Doc Hollywood" comes to mind.) And what happens there? Some kind of transformation born of learning the truth about themselves--a truth that either changes their goal or magically prepares them for their original destination. Their GPS was right on track after all!

3. Just because the GPS is right... Even on paved roads that take no detours through Armpit, all journeys on occasion, have complications: flat tires, breakdowns, running out of gas and into construction (Ah! Talk about road being paved in front of you!). Sometimes these are addressed quickly and you're on your way--like the time my mother and I ran out of gas in the Nevada desert. Within minutes, a man driving toward us on a frontage road across a field, stopped, asked if we needed gas and proceeded to slosh toward us with gallon cans on either side of him! But often, the process is more labor intensive--imploring us to slow down, learn patience, ask questions or ask for help--and in the process. learning just what we needed to learn...faith, resilience, trust.

4. Just because ... "the process is the goal." We've heard it said, but have we made it our own? It's important to have a destination that acts as a tuning fork for heart, body and spirit--something that energizes across a year or a lifetime. But it's the personal process underlying that goal that matters most. Late one night a few months ago, I started second-guessing my new career destination and its motives. Maybe it's just about money. Or wanting to prove myself as an author. Maybe I don't even have enough energy for all this.

And just before that unseaworthy ship went out to sea, I heard a voice that made me laugh out loud. "Uh, excuse me," it said "Even if all that's true, which other path were you planning on taking?" None, of course--because for better or worse, richer or poorer, this is so clearly my path. All outer agendas aside, the GPS inside us has the true destination logged in at all times: the path of our personal evolution.

All that said, I'm finding that the more we "trust Spirit," "follow inner guidance," or "pay attention to road signs," the more our lives flow with an ease that we're not capable of creating on our own. And the more we open our hearts to the purpose of doing hard time in Armpit, and the insights of our travel complications, the more the journey deepens--and at times, becomes nothing short of enchanted.

Til We Cross Paths Again,

Maridel