Hmmm, are you finding joy along the winding road of life or focusing only on the destination?
Recently the lyrics of the classic TV sitcom Cheers have been running on repeat in my head. It was 40+ years ago that this lyric was written but it rings even more true today.
Making your way in the world today takes everything you’ve got / Taking a break from all your worries, sure would help a lot / Wouldn’t you like to get away…
It feels like there is nothing but bad and depressing news flying at use every day. A few examples to illustrate my point :
The Israel Hamas war is raging on with the humanitarian crisis in Palestine worsening every day.
Houti rebels are attacking commercial ships in the Red Sea. The USA is responding with missile attacks.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is coming up on its two year anniversary with no end in sight. Patrick Sanders, Chief of the UK General Staff, is warning that UK citizens must be prepared for war with Russia.
The “mother of all cyber security breaches” has been reported. A staggering 26 billion records have been exposed in a supermassive leak from popular platforms including LinkedIn, X, Dropbox and Adobe.
Health Canada and the Canadian Food Inspection Agency have issued more food recalls for reasons ranging from possible salmonella contamination to undeclared products that may cause reactions to those with allergies and sensitivities.
Donald Trump, despite all the charges laid against him and his increasingly unstable behaviour, has won the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. It is not out of the question that he could become president of the United States once again.
We are living in messy and worrisome times. We all need ways to get away from the messiness for a while. For some of us this may mean jumping on a plane to go to a sunny destination for a week. For others it may be as simple as shutting off the news and going to see a movie – or closing the blinds and curling up in front of the fire with a good book.
At times like this, it is necessary to remind ourselves that life is a journey. There are times when the roads are straight and smooth and other times, like the present, when they are winding and treacherous with gaping potholes that threaten to swallow us.
We have to remember that a destination is not the goal for our life journey. Finding pleasure in the things we can along the way, despite the worries and setbacks, is a necessary survival skill. We never really arrive. In the final accounting, it will be how much joy we found along the way that will define how successful our life was.
Please know that getting away now and then is okay. Now if you will excuse me, I am going to curl up with a good book and escape the craziness for a few hours.
~ Now Available Online from Amazon, Chapters Indigo or Barnes & Noble: Hunting Muskie, Rites of Passage – Stories by Michael Robert Dyet
~ Michael Robert Dyet is also the author of Until the Deep Water Stills – An Internet-enhanced Novel (now out of print) which was a double winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards 2009. Visit Michael’s website at www.mdyetmetaphor.com .
~ Subscribe to Michael’s Metaphors of Life Journal aka That Make Me Go Hmmm at its’ internet home www.mdyetmetaphor.com/blog2. If you’re reading this post on another social networking site, come back regularly to my page for postings once a week.
Tags: bad news · Cheers sitcom · life is a journey · metaphor · Michael Robert DyetNo Comments