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My washing machine is whirring in the background, building up speed to the final spin cycle.  Today the sky is blue and the sun is shining, the warmth it radiates is good for my soul.  Life is such a tapestry.  The mundane duties of motherhood, blended with work place responsibilities, heart-gratifying coffees with friends, to-do lists as long as my arm, simple suppers around the family table, a surprise text from an absent son and the list goes on. Each day never identical, but seemingly the same.  So much so, that when someone asks me “How was your week?”, I honestly don’t really know how to reply.

How do we get to this place? Life can lead us along a path so well tread we don’t actually realise where it might be taking us, or whether there is an actual destination in sight.  Aimlessly we can walk along, led by whatever happens to take our fancy, or not, and wonder what in the world we have done with our life.

My head screams at me – “Don’t do it!”  “Don’t drink the Kool Aid!”  Yet another week flies by and I am another week closer to the end. Morbid I know but maybe I need to think like that to spur me into action.  Maybe you do?

If tomorrow was the last day of this life, what is it you would wish you had done, seen, said?  Why do we live like we have endless amounts of time and are in no real hurry to use it?  I think this may be the root of the problem – the use of our time.

For two years now I have been talking about this book I must write.  I must write it because it was given to me, delivered on a silver platter in a dream.  Upon waking I felt it had already been written.  I saw the title, the cover, the chapters, the content.  As I write now – I realise what I didn’t see – I didn’t see the authors name, my name.  And this makes me realise, there is no author if there is no book!

The book is ready and waiting to be written and once it is complete the authors name will be in place.

So essentially it is up to me.  Will there be a book?  Will I be obedient, focused, centred, dedicated, willing?  Will I look up from the daily-grind-road I am travelling and take a detour on the less travelled path-of-calling?  It is narrower.  Crowded out in parts by thorny bushes and dry undergrowth.  It isn’t paved with a smooth bitumen, or even looks like a cobbled street but a dusty, rocky, ground that leads to adventure.  It looks perilous, not particularly beautiful or showing itself off as an attractive option.  Is that why many don’t take it?  Perhaps they don’t know it is there, the turnoff missed in the mind-numbing busyness of life that has us walking around like zombies from a b-grade horror movie.  That is it! Not always the discarded choice, but the missed opportunity.

So back to me.  I have seen it, my GPS has given me the warning that the turn is coming up, and I have taken it, but my journey is slow.  My head continually questioning the decision to divert from the highway many were on.  My feet faltering on the uneven ground, dust in my eyes.  

So where are you?  I ask the question not to infer judgement but to perhaps meet some weary travellers just like me.  Are you on the rocky ground or the sealed highway?  Did you miss the turn-off or make the decision to walk on by?  Your GPS can re-route your journey if you change your mind.  Maybe you didn’t realise there was another option.  Perhaps it is not a calling to write a book, but let’s go back – what would you wish you had done if today was the last day of the journey? Perhaps your turn-off is a missed conversation, a long-awaited apology that will only ever happen if you make the first move. Your adventure trail may require you to stop long enough and show love to the partner you know will always be there, but who requires love today and every day; or an overseas destination that you’ve kept in your ‘drawer of dreams’.

Friend today is the day to take another look at your GPS.  Change the voice to one you enjoy listening to and look up, glance ahead at what is around the corner.  If all you can see is the same, change your direction.  A one-degree adjustment may be just what you need to gain perspective and begin walking with your head up, looking forward to what is next.

This life is for living. Who knows, we may even bump into each other on one of those less travelled paths just because we were present and aware.