Navigating.

The GPS of our rental car told us to take the 476 Freeway in Virginia. We drove past the dirt and grass path. It told us to make a U-turn. It still pointed to the forest path. Well, that doesn’t seem right. We started to laugh. This couldn’t be it. We drove by again. Make a U-turn it said. Do it! It was very adamant. There were no other choices. And we were already in the abandoned mine… So yes, we drove into the forest. And around. Past the signs that read Danger. Into a GPS circle in the forest. I stopped laughing at this point and prayed Dominique could navigate us out of this Virginian Blair Witch Project and onto some sort of paved road. It was a matter of minutes – many minutes – but they were very long, long minutes… and finally we were back to the mine – the abandoned mine. I unplugged the GPS and we gutted our way to a glorious paved road, and then to the freeway. It was glorious.

I don’t know how many times through the years I have said, how did they, (we) get so off the rails?… “What kind of idiots believe this sort of thing!” “It’s so obvious!” Oh, I have said it all… and yet, against our better judgment we followed this GPS into the forest. It can happen. It can happen to all of us. We can go down a wrong path. We all do it. We can all get misled. Follow the wrong leader, the wrong crowd. And it makes a person feel kind of stupid. And here is the key part — when this happens — and it will happen at some point to all of us — do you double down, knowing the mistake, just to avoid feeling the fool, or do you admit the error, find a better way, and really show your intelligence?

Life is an adventure. We love going down the unusual path. Discovering new things. Lessons, beauty, life is around every corner. We celebrate it all! We learn from it all. And when we make mistakes, we unplug and reboot and try again. We laugh and have a new story to tell.

The right path is usually pretty obvious – sometimes, not until you go down the wrong one – but it’s there. Find your way. Enjoy the journey!