Life Is Not A Straight Path

I remember taking golf as a gym class in college, in order to pass we had to play nine holes on a golf course. My girlfriends and I started out on a course with one color flags and three holes and about three hours later, we found out we were on a different course with different color flags. Within those three hours, we stopped a zillion times to let others pass us by. We chopped up the “green” with our inexperience and tried to hide the damage by sticking the manicured grass back into place. But, I have to tell you, we had an adventure that day that I have never forgotten. Life is full of courses, trails and paths, but we don’t always stay on the one we started out on. Along the way, we may even make a mess of things.

How many times have you heard the sayings, “Finish what you started” and “Stay on the path”? Life is not a straight path, nearly every day, perhaps every minute, there are forks in the road and you can choose to go one way or another. We don’t have a map to tell us which way to go, all we have is our instincts. Sometimes we even choose the wrong path. All we can do is look for the next crossroads and, based on what we have learned, choose more wisely. One path may be darker than another, one may be an easier walk, one may be filled with more obstacles, but they all lead to the same end.

One time I took a walk along a path at Minnewaska State Park with my daughter and her friend. We saw beautiful views over cliffs and lush paths through the woods, we crossed bridges and found fields to play in. We didn’t always stay on the path, we didn’t finish as quickly as we could have, we had some adventures along the way, and when we finally saw that we were almost at the end, we were ready to get there.

Life should be fun, it should be adventurous and sprinkled with unexpected experiences. When you get to the end, you should be able to say to yourself, I had a great time and I’m ready for it to end now. Really, when you come to the end of your life, what more could you hope for? Brush off the regrets, explore and live your life, take chances and make choices, learn and move on. That’s how life should be.