Crossroads

Crossroads

By John W. Vander Velden

 

There are times when we find ourselves at the crossroads, faced with a multitude of possibilities.  For we understand that we can continue straight ahead, go to the left or right, or turn around and go back the way we came.  But we must make a choice.

 

On occasions we take drives, headed in some general direction to see what there is to see.  On those outings we have no specific destination going on back roads not unlike the car rides our parent took us decades ago.  Both Jackie and I were raised in farm families, and an hour or two wandering about county roads more than cheap entertainment for us all.  It gave our fathers a chance to “compare notes”.  I remember one time late in my father’s career he and mom drove north on vacation.  He returned disappointed.  “There’s nothing to see up there…just pine trees.”  What he meant to say was he missed the cropland, the corn and soybean fields, gold expanses of ripened wheat, and the rolling green of hayfield and pasture.  My father was a farmer, down to his bones…maybe deeper.

So it does not surprise Jackie, if I suggest we just go for a ride, and we find ourselves on some chip-and-seal road not so far away, looking over miles of crops and farmsteads, considering just how much the “country” has changed.  But those drives should remind us of other things as well.  For though we may not have a set a goal or destination on those jaunts, as we go along, we come to crossroads, and whether we place more than a glance as we pass, each requires a decision.  Do we go on, shall we turn here, or have we gone far enough with a need to retrace our path?

Those questions should not be reserved for the time spent behind the steering wheel. For each day we come to crossroads. Some come expected, others…not so much.  Some offer opportunities that make the choosing of direction easy.  Others are locals of difficult decisions, and we wonder which direction is best.  For meandering around the countryside might be an acceptable pastime, in our lives we understand that each road can lead to a different destination, and not every cross road is marked, nor is the map we hold at times sufficient.  But the sun is yet overhead and we are bound to travel on.

As we go through our lives we understand that the choices we make affect our lives.  We know when we reach these crossroads that the choice of direction is our and ours alone.  No one can choose on our behalf, and though there are times we would wish others might, we should never surrender the right of the choosing. So throughout our lives we must choose, and each decision we make might be right, it might be wrong, but we journey on.

On our travels at times, it is certain, will head in wrong directions.  There will be times we find ourselves utterly lost, certain we have ventured so far from our hoped destination that to reach it beyond possibility.  It is but life.  It is that we are but human.  For we wander a road none has traveled before, and miss-turns are part the learning.  However those that walk the road of faith understand that we have a companion on every part of our journey.  Someone that will not abandon, no matter whether or not we choose our direction wisely.  Someone that can help guide us as we move through life’s maze of forks and crossings.  Someone that can help to shape and clarify the destination we hope at last to reach. 

I hope you do not travel alone, that, at the crossroads, you choose your path wisely.  That you find courage when the way becomes difficult.  Have the humility to ask for directions when you travel lost or confused.  Understand that you can move back toward familiar territory when forward motion becomes impossible.  That each day you take a breath and understand you stand at a new place, and understand the road ahead has many crossroads.

(689 Words)                7-31-2015