Inside Lighted Alleys

Now that we rolled our clocks back an hour, darkness descends as fast as a poorly pitched tent. I forget how dark the back roads get with only headlights guiding the way. Adding to the night’s mystery, we never know when or where wandering deer will decide to cross the road. On cloudy evenings, darkness surrounds us like a velvet cloak as our thoughts run wild with imagined dangers, like this:   

                                         https://youtu.be/RU8nalnppLk      

A few extra precautions will help us stay safe. For instance, trust your instincts, travel with the brightest light, and avoid roads leading to short cuts and back alleys where danger might lurk. By nature, most of us enjoy a good scare. It’s the potentially bad scares that worry us. What’s scaring you and how are you handling it?       

Without A Doubt

When traveling on a familiar road, we think we know what conditions we’ll face. In the morning, we expect rush hour traffic to delay us, like I did earlier this week. Driving along a road congested with early rush hour traffic, I expected to encounter a long line of cars. Off to the left, about two cars ahead, I spotted an escape route. At that moment, the two cars in front of me made the left turn revealing an open road with the closest car was about twenty yards away. No rush hour traffic in sight. I jumped to conclusions based on what I believed, and so did these guys:

                                     https://youtu.be/BdFHCeszgCw

We’re quick to look at a situation, and make judgement calls without considering all sides, or even a few facts. If we spend a little time investigating—asking, the whens, hows, or whys—imagine what we might learn. When is the last time you jumped to a conclusion?

Stranger Things

Keep your eyes open, and you’ll spot the strangest sights alongside the road. It’s not unusual to see people pausing to change a tire, closing the gas tank door, fastening the trunk, or switching drivers, but I saw a more unusual scene. I spotted a guy standing beside his car applying deodorant. Granted, maybe he forgot to do it that morning, or maybe he felt he needed a second application, but admit it, it’s not your everyday scene. See if these scenes look familiar: 

                                         https://youtu.be/QREokgDQ5g4

Be ready for anything because anything could be right down the road. As soon as we think we’ve seen everything, something new pops up. What things have you seen that make you reevaluate your strongest opinions?      

Proceed with Caution

Everyone knows what to do at a traffic light: if it’s green you go, if it’s red you stop. This week, I ran into a major traffic light malfunction that caused people to do a double-take. The traffic light was red and green, and you know it didn’t take drivers long to decide what to do. After looking both ways, people drove through, which probably seemed like a nightmare for driver at the cross-street trying to make left turns. Mixed signals can easily cause confusion, and so could this:

                                     https://youtu.be/RG-OlGA_DbQ

A driver who mistakes the flick of the wrist or the twist of the hip for a “go” could end up with traffic troubles. If we fail to analyze the various sides of an issue, we’re susceptible to making snap judgements and causing huge problems. What issue do you need more time to investigate before coming to a sensible decision?      

Free to Fall

Banking on the GSP’s promise of a gas station not far down the road, we set out on an unfamiliar, alternative route toward the Californian beach. The road twisted and turned through a mountainous region. Before long, we realized we picked the road with only  occasional guardrails separating us from heart-stopping, sixty feet drop-offs. Besides that, directions for the “promised” gas station led us to a right hand turn and a sign that said “road closed.” Duped by the GPS again.

 So, we inched along a long, windy mountain road with only a quarter tank of gas, and due to the elevation, no GPS reception. But, after several more miles, we located a gas station, regained the GSP signal, and exited the harrowing mountain road. Looking back, I’m glad our drive on I74 looked nothing like this:

                                             https://youtu.be/BA8G4Tg0sZw

It’s amazing what we’ll endure to get to where we want to go.  As you heard, thirteen guys in   China paved their own road, although several men didn’t live to see the end. Robert Frost’s well-known poem implies that choosing our own road takes courage. What’s the scariest road you’ve taken?

 

Closer Than You Think

Can you believe the fog? Earlier this week when warm temperatures mixed with melting snow, the roads almost disappeared in the fog. Add howling wolves, a shadow lurking beside a shed, and you have the perfect setting for a mystery/thriller movie.

It’s amazing how much danger a dense fog can hide. One minute you‘re driving down an empty   road and the next minute an animal or vehicle appears from nowhere. You never know what you’ll spot once the fog clears. Here’s a scary situation:

                                         http://youtu.be/ne6NwcYFc8w

Fog is like life: go far enough and you’ll encounter a surprise that’s just beyond the bend. Sometimes circumstances cloud our perspective and discourage us from seeing down the road, until we slow down and look around. Better days may closer than we think. What’s one thing you can do right now to enhance your journey?