Take a New Route Tuesday

Today I am actually traveling a familiar route. Today is what we call in Extension Holy Tuesday, or faculty meeting day. We all travel to our central regional location to have our meetings and administrative updates. For me that means driving a familiar route to Clinton, Missouri. 

We had some pretty big storms move through Missouri last night. As I drove through Cross Timbers I began to see for about a mile stretch big uprooted trees lying on their side, branches down everywhere, large trees broken completely in half. 

I am amazed at the amount of damage. 

As I drive further down the road, everything is dry.The sun is shining. No leaf clumps scattered on the road, no broken branches, no groups of huddled folks beside 4-wheel drive pickups. 

I begin to think about how on this Tuesday, the route is so different for folks living just 10 miles apart. 

Storms have a funny way of doing that.  Here in Missouri we are well aware of the destruction a single path from a tornado or straight line winds can make. 

So my heart goes out to the people in Wheatland and Cross Timbers as they clean up the mess.  Their  route is most definitely quite diverted today. But just as I saw several miles back; folks come together, messes are cleaned up, and the human spirit ultimately finds a way to enJOY.

Take new route Tuesday. 

This morning at 8 o’clock as I’m ready to leave to head to Columbia for our Youth and Families Spring conference, my youngest daughter calls to tell me she is coming back home because the road is closed. Mind you she has a phone with GPS, and there are multiple routes to get from our house to school, but they are routes she’s not familiar with and she is only a few months in as a new driver. Needless to say, I helped her take a new route. She followed in her car as we wound our way on back roads avoiding the closed road on our way to the high school.  

Watching the clock tick, I could feel my shoulders tense knowing that I would be late for my meeting. But I take a deep breath and realize sometimes in life there unexpected curveballs, or road closings, that get in the way of the best laid plan. We are then faced with a choice to let these curveballs make our day miserable or give us an opportunity to look for a new route.

Today I am choosing the new route.

enJOY!