One could argue that life is really all about getting from point A to point B, which would be birth until death. Getting from one point to another may not always be as simple as traveling in a straight line. Even if it, the journey itself could be more important than the destination. At any given moment in our lives we're moving towards something. It may not always feel that way, but no matter where you are, you are going somewhere. In that regard everything is a matter of getting from where we are now to where we're headed. Sometimes the journey to our destination can seem like too much. In some cases it's so overwhelming that rather than take the first step we instead decide to do nothing. I've known people who were so afraid that the first step could put at risk everything they already had, that it was just safer to stick with what they had, even if it meant that they gave up a chance at something potentially better. I've talked about how the future can be unknown and we tend to have a fear of the unknown. Sure there is a very good possibility that everything will work out fine, but there is that ever so slim chance that something could go horribly wrong. We can prepare. We can plan ahead. We can dream up every possible contingency in hopes that we won't be caught off guard. It's all just an attempt to reign in that fear of what could happen that we can't see coming.
So life may simply come down to figuring out the trick on how to get from here to there with the least amount of pain. I've found that a lot of times you have to go a long way around to come a short distance back. Most recently I've been presented with a chance to finally get what I've wanted for a long time. Well at least part of what I want, which could be the start of where other things fall into place. You'd think that having something like that would be a time to celebrate and be happy. While I am in fact happy that the opportunity has shown itself after all this time, there is a part of me that's terrified of what it could mean. I had finally gotten to a point where I had my feet underneath me. It may have not been an ideal situation, but it wasn't all that bad. Then out of the blue the thing I wanted shows up at my door and there is still a sense of disbelief that it's really happening. They say that love finds you when you're not looking for it. This feels very much the same in that regard. Life has a tendency of throwing things at you when you least expect it. That may not be a bad thing either. Sometimes we have to be caught off guard so that we can step up to the situation. With preparation we may end up talking ourselves out of it. At least that's how it's been for me. If this opportunity hadn't come from out of nowhere when it did I could very easily have dragged my feet into ever making a change, always coming up with yet another reason why I couldn't rather than why I should. It's times like that when you have to really choose between what you have and what you want. In some cases you can't have both.
There is a somewhat cynical saying that I've heard: "When God wants to punish us he answers our prayers." It really addresses the fact that often times we don't know what to do with the things we say we want. Very much like a fantasy, it may be better that it stays a fantasy because that way it never will let you down or stray from what you think it should be. People may have this vision of where they're headed. A dream of life. For some it never becomes anything more than a dream. Life went another direction for them. This may not be the dream, but it may be as good or even better than they had ever hoped. For some that dream haunts them. It becomes this goal that is always just out of reach. Maybe one day they'll do what it takes to achieve it or maybe they'll just resign themselves to the fact that it's just a fantasy and give up on it. There are times though when the dream has a chance to become reality. That can be a scary moment. It's at that point when it stops being an abstract concept and moves towards being an actual thing. Then we have to start thinking about how we're going to get from here to there because most dreams require some form of change, otherwise we'd already be living them. Everything that has happened before has brought us to this point. So if we finally make it from A to B successfully and are given what we've wanted all along, then what do we do next? As I said in the beginning, we're always going somewhere. Hopefully we never stop because when we do, that's when the ride is over and it's time to get out. Maybe that's what makes the destination so scary. When we reach it we'll just have to sort out our next one. That idea can be overwhelming. Then again maybe it means we'll always have something to look forward to. Something to work towards.
