Who Are Your Navigators?

     Sitting in the front seat of the car with a wrinkled map in my lap, my passenger foot brake planted firmly on the floor and my blood pressure elevated, I followed the winding red and blue lines, reading the fine print and randomly shouting, “Turn here!” It was always a disaster waiting to happen. We eventually arrived at every destination on our vacation agendas, but not without numerous stories, some quite dramatic, and various mishaps and detours. Traveling was different in the 80’s, and everyone in the car had a role. My role was navigator, not because I was an experienced traveler with vast knowledge of golden roads and magic highways. No, I was a navigator by default. Nik was too young to read a map, and Darren was in too much of a hurry for me to drive.

     Like those vacations, life is a journey.  Oftentimes, we don’t even think about where we are going or how we are going to get there, but that is not the worst problem that plagues many. Our biggest handicap is we don’t even stop to wonder, along the way, who is our navigator. We are following randomly placed navigators in our life or ones who show up at a convenient moment and become our navigator by default. This can happen in our spiritual life, our political life, our family life, our social life, our work life. I think that covers enough that you get the picture.  I am sure the miraculous presence of deliberately chosen navigators brought a small band of soccer players out of a dark, wet cave against all odds.  I am sure the mama duck navigating twelve babies across the lakeshore road at peak traffic time delivering her waddling family safely to the other side is because she was meant for the job. We can survive life following default navigators, but if we want to thrive, it is time to stop and ask- who are my navigators?

Peace. Love, Linda