You didn’t have brain surgery…Road Talk

I had a funny conversation the other day. This person is a whole box of worms, and in many cases, I’ve gotten him a little wrong over the years.

Ahhh…

I admit it, I may have been….wrong…about something…maybe…about him…a little bit…maybe.

😄

I was helping get some things for a project he’s doing for my Grandparents and we got to talking in the truck, a lot of that is probably for another story, but for a moment I questioned if I had brain surgery during this conversation.

We were talking about tattoos for my scar. I didn’t get the standard stitches, so the typical “zipperhead” tattoo many of us get wouldn’t work for me.

“You didn’t get brain surgery.”

And while the conversation was light overall he was serious. Somehow, someone made him believe that I had neck surgery. And for a moment, he almost made me think the same 🙃

Now, I had to explain the basics of the surgery, and this may have surprised him, or he couldn’t care less, but it got me thinking how something so very very very big to me was made so small by him.

And not just him, but by many others. This includes some of the closest people to me.

I’ve been on a journey, though I’ve grown a little tired of the word “journey”, but I’ve realized and accepted that it wasn’t a small feat to make it this far. Anyone who chooses to say otherwise can go fly a kite.

It’s funny how quickly some minimize what others go through because they aren’t going through it or believe their circumstances are far greater.

Maybe they are. Maybe they are “the snap” kind of bad. Maybe they are a pea size in comparison.

Unless it’s your pill to swallow every day;

…your face being slammed into a window one day, your house filled with flowers the next…

…your boss complimenting your superb five years one day, the third associate with less than a year experience in the last three months getting promoted over you the next…

…you survive your last chemo treatment one day, only to land in the hospital after getting hit by a car the next…

[Insert experience here]

Unless it’s your pill to swallow every day, you don’t know what someone is going through or how they’ll handle it.

And it’s no right of ours to take away from their experience regardless of the situation.

I’ve been told I’m a very nice person, maybe a little too nice, given all I’ve been through and how others have been to me.

There are two directions a person can take to any situation. Within each of those directions are ways we can turn things around if we really wanted to.

Good and Bad.

I’ve traveled in one direction for a long time with no exit in sight. However I got flipped around, the direction I’m headed in right now feels pretty good.

It just feels better.

Not everyone finds a direction that works for them.

And not everyone can travel along with you.

In some cases, we go in a very different direction than others, pulling ourselves further away from each other.

Maybe it’s for the best.

And maybe we even end up on different roads.

Let’s not worry about the kind of cars other people are driving or where their car is headed. Steer our own wheel. Worry about the road we’re on. Concentrate on the luggage we’ve got strapped to our roof. Take care of the vehicle we’ve got to get us to where we are going.

You may be in an 80s red Subaru 2-seater that’s puttin right now, but there are plenty of upgrades ahead in your life. Enough dealerships out there just waiting to hand over the keys.

Adjust to the season changes with care. Be patient. Lose the excess luggage of the stuff that doesn’t fit you anymore (car included). Nix the passengers that distract and cause those near misses. Strap in for those hilly roads ahead. Don’t forget to fill up and maintain your stuff. And sometimes, it’s okay to let someone else you trust take the wheel while you get some rest.

But whatever you do, don’t see another car speeding passed you and think you need to keep up. Don’t eyeball that bigger car and think you’re running behind because you’re still peddling.

You never know if you they’ve stopped to do the work. Check the fluids, air up the tires, pee breaks, meals, or just a stretch. Their road trip may just be that, a brief trip from one exit to the next.

Kiddos, we’ve got this.