Potholes

Watch Out For Those Potholes !

Have you ever noticed how you get days when everyone is bouncing off the walls or everyone drags themselves around like a flat tyre ? While that in itself would be a interesting topic to Blog about and an interesting topic to hear everyone's opinion as to why and how this occures, it is not the topic of this particular Blog.

What I'd like to chat about today is more about those individual potholes that seem to pop up out of nowhere and send us crashing off course when we hit them.

How do you handle yourself when you hit one of life's potholes ?

Are you the type of person who slows life right down and ensures their focus is not in the distance on the destination but directly infront of you to ensure that you see all the potholes before crashing into them, and then when you do see the potholes you slow down even more to carefully navigate your way through the potholes all the time ensuring that everything gets through unscratched and dust free ?

Or are you the type of person that come hell or high water you keep your eyes on the destination and the foot flat to the floor crashing over and through any potholes in your way. Your not worried if you collect a few scratches along the way or for that matter you don't worry if you get bounced off course because your eyes have never left the destination and you can make whatever adjustment is needed and just start down a new road to your original destination. To you it dosn't matter how you get there as long as you get there.

Me, well I tend to be a mixture of both at times. I primarily tend to be foot flat to the floor and I just adjust the Life GPS as needed and get back on track to my destination. To me the journey is the adventure, the destination is a motivator that stops me going around in circles. I cherish the scratches, the dents and the detours as I believe they all add flavour to what outherwise could be a very bland and tasteless life.

Now having said all of that, sometimes you hit a pothole that is so deep and so wide that it rattles your nerves, damages the undercarriage and maybe even blows a tyre or two. We've all his potholes like those before and while we all try and swerve and miss them, unfortunately some are just so large you can't avoid hitting them head on and on the other occasions they come out of the left field and unsighted you slam head first into them.

It's when you hit these big potholes that you get to see what your vehicle is really made of. Is your chassis made of steel or aluminium ?

Now we all know that that things were built stronger and more reliable in the " Good Old Days ", things were made to last and they could take a solid knock and keep going. The newer stuff is more Hi-Tec and a fair bit more sensitive but at the same time it's loaded with more safety features that stop injuries when you hit those big potholes.

Now I can hear you all asking the question or arguing the case as to which one is better. Mordern, comfitable and loaded with safety features or good old solid dependability ?

I personally think that while the newer Hi-Tec keeps you safer with it's crumple zones, air bags and such, when you actually hit a pothole, there is damage everytime and the repair and maintenance never ending. Therefore I would definitely choose the good old days, lets face it you may get shaken around a bit more and collect a few more cuts and bruises along the way but nine out of ten times when you hit a pothole you can still drive out the other side even if it was a big pothole that made you slow down a bit. I guess things were just simpler in the good old days.

Whats that old say'n about " If it dosn't kill ya it will just make you stronger " I also think that it's the cuts, bruises and grime collected along the way that makes us who we are, it's the flavour in our soul and the story in our eyes.

As I mentioned above, I believe the journey is what it's all about. It's not about the beginning or who you are at birth, it's not about the end or what you have achieved or accumulated at the end. It's about the journey in between the two, how you carried yourself on your journey and the degree to which you have touched this world you live in. It's how you handled the potholes.

Years ago at the funeral of a friend a poem was read. I have never forgotten this poem and I am amazed at how well it captures the essence of an existence in such a simple straight forward way.

So here is to our Dash, lets make it all count !

The Dash

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I watched a man who stood to speak.

At the funeral of a friend.

He referred to the dates to be placed on their tombstone

From the beginning to the end

He noted that the first came the day of their birth

And spoke the following date with tears,

But he said that mattered most of all

Was the dash between those years.

.

For that dash represented all the time

That they spent alive on earth

And now only those who loved them

Know what that little dash is worth.

For it matters not, how much we own

The cars, the house the cash

What matters is how we lived and loved

And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard

Are there things you'd like to change ?

For you never know how much time is left

That can still be rearranged.

.

If we could just slow down enough

To consider what's true and real

And always try to understand

The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger

And show appreciation more

And love the people in our lives

Like we never loved before.

.

If we treat each other with respect,

And more often wear a smile

Remembering that this special dash

Might only last a while.

.

So when your eulogy's being read

With your life's actions to rehash

Would you be proud of the things they say

About how you spend your dash ?

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Unknown Author.