The
other night, I had tickets to see Randy Travis at the Schermerhorn
Center. I arrived downtown a little early, so I had time to eat a
bite. With that said, I got to indulge myself in one of my favorite
restaurants – the Old Spaghetti Factory. There is nothing better
than the browned spaghetti (either there or at Demos’), and it was
a great meal. After that, it was time to make the walk to the
Schemerhorn.
As
I was walking through downtown, I saw a dog running around on
Broadway. Obviously, the dog had gotten lost as it seemed to be
wandering around aimlessly through the Nashville streets during rish
hour. Fortunately, the dog made it through Broadway, and proceeded up
one of the streets. Hopefully, it knew where it was going.
On
the way home, the image of that dog stayed with me. Broadway at
5:30pm in Nashville is a scary enough proposition for humans – I
can only imagine what an animal thinks when trying to navigate
through it. But, something occurred to me – yes, Dauphin is doing
his best Jack Handey right now with a “Deep Thought.” At times,
we are nothing more than one of those animals. The busy street that
we are trying to get through is life itself.
How
do we, as humans, find our way across that proverbial highway? There
are a lot of ways, but I am going to tell you what has worked for me.
First and foremost, I realize I have not been by myself in that walk.
God has been there since February 17,1974. Now, it has only been the
past few years, sadly, that I realize how close he has been by my
side. It’s taken a few professional and personal knocks along the
way that have made me aware of this. My life is a lot different now
than it was five years ago – and I’ve got to say that I am
grateful for that. I didn’t design some of the things that have
happened to me. I didn’t plan on being single again as I approach
40. I have written about that struggle before, but I do believe that
someday that void will be taken care of, and I will be able to look
back and say ‘I understand why this had to happen for this to
happen.’
I
also didn’t plan on some of the career steps that I have been
blessed to take the past few years. And, I am trying to take full
advantage of each and every one of them. I look back on some times in
my life where things weren’t moving as fast as I would have liked,
and I definitely can say that ‘I understand why this had to
happen.’ I try to remind myself of that when the speed of life is
123mph, as it sometimes gets!
So,
what is the point of these ramblings? I guess what I am trying to say
is how thankful I am for everything that has happened in my life. The
good, the bad, and the ugly. The past five years have been crazy, but
they have shaped me. Some things that I thought were so important
aren’t, and some that I lost sight of are even more so. I’m
blessed with family, friends, a Church family that cares about me,
and a job...well, jobs....that
I love. “Juliet?” Well, she’s not there right now, but
hopefully. Am I advertising? LOL...I’ve thought of it, but maybe
tomorrow. (I do have Alan Jackson tickets on the 20th...)
To quote Kershaw or McGraw, ‘I ain’t as good as I’m gonna get,
but I’m better than I used to be.’ And, hopefully, I just might
do things better!
But,
don’t take that sentence as me bragging. There were many days of
tears, doubt, and sadness that led me to this point. I guess what the
morale of all this is – at times, we’re all just looking to find
our way across the street. The cars, and trucks move fast – a lot
faster than I moved ten years ago, let alone now. But, there was
someone leading me across that street. And, even though I still get
caught up with “me” at times, and my eye tends to wander more
than most, I know who has led this dog thus far....and I just want to
say thank you!
