This blog was created to serve as an inspiration to all who read it..........to aspire, to love and to live a life of purpose.

Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Traffic is just "Go-Slow": Hang in There

Two weekends ago my sister and I visited another sister in New Jersey. The sister I went with stayed on while I had to get back home on Sunday, by myself. I had planned that the 3.5 hour ride will be a straight shot. It will be a me, myself and I enjoyment time and I was looking forward it.

Come sunday, I filled up my car with gas/fuel and I even stopped by my fav new jersey restaurant to get my fav food; sweet potato fries to keep me company. I had a host of CDs with the latest songs.

I was ready to go!

The first 30 mins of the ride was smooth. Going 65 miles per hour (ok I admit 75 sometimes :-)), I had my sun glasses on, I was rocking to my music, munching on my fries and coasting. Life was good. Everything was going as planned.

Then all of a sudden, the car in front of me stopped. It didn't just slow down. It stopped. Then it seemed like it was just rolling, with the brake lights still on.  Then I looked ahead and it looked like a parking lot. All I saw were brake lights.
This is what I saw 
From 65 miles per hour, I started crawling. I was moving at about 5-10 miles per hour. One hour passed and according to my GPS, I had only moved a mile. 

Then the frustration crept in, as promised. The fries all of a sudden became stale to me. I couldn't stand the temperature in the car. I kept playing with the AC but nothing felt good enough to me. So, I turned it off. The music started to even hurt my ears. So I turned it off. 

So much for the fun ride. 

I considered going back to New Jersey and spending more time with my sisters. Sure, that was better than this roadblock.  I considered pulling on the side of the road and letting the traffic clear up. Then, I called my sister to vent. 

She said, "you're already on your way. It will clear up, don't worry". 

So I stayed in the race. Tried to use the time differently...to practice patience.

And it did clear up. Two hours later. But it cleared up.

Then it hit me. I had just experienced what life really does to you. You start off well, things seem to be going according to YOUR plan, then it slows down. You look ahead and it looks like a parking lot. Nothing is moving and you loose all hope. You think its a better choice to turn around to whatever "comfort" means to you. You consider stopping completely and letting life pass you by.

Imagine I had gone back, I won't have made it home. If I had pulled over, I would have been watching the cars pass me by while I pitied myself.

The same applies to your life. Life is a race. You have to keep hanging in there. Even when its going slow, don't loose hope that it will clear up. Getting out of the race won't get you there any faster and turning around would only put you back to square one. It may take sometime. But you'll get to your destination. 

This post is dedicated to everyone who's sitting in traffic. Even when all you see are brake lights, hang in there, it will clear up. :-)
Stay Inspired...

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great post..thanks for sharing- a simple but great reminder to stay in the game!

Princess R said...

Glad you like!

Ginger said...

Simple situations can teach the greatest lessons :).
Thanks for sharing.

p.s. 35hr drive sounds loooooooong o

Princess R said...

Thank you for reading Ginger! :-)