The Road Home: The First "Ryan's Corner"

Well, it's another night my friends. After closing down the local watering hole, AKA Tony's, I indulged myself with a little Mario Cart at a buddy's house. It was a chill night, but a good one none the less. After parting ways for the night with my bud, I began the occasionally long, but mostly great-tune-listening trek back to Myra. Tonight was no exception. I took the long way back to afford myself some additional tuneage. As I approached my destination that is Patty's driveway, my IPod was wrapping up a wonderful song:

 

As the track ended I sat in the front seat of my Toyota, and I decided to take a step out and ponder while listening to the coyotes singing their nightly chorus in the background. My first thought was about how much I love this song, but at the same time what and oxymoron the exact same thought was. You see, one of the repeated verses of the song states, "forget about my home, forget about my home." This is something I could never do. No matter where I may be, I could never forget about my home because it has always been such a wonderful place and a huge part of my life. As I stood in my driveway in the 22 degree weather smoking just one more Marlboro Blend 27 cig, my mind began to wonder, and a few more oxymorons came to mind. One in particular has been marinating in my mind for about a week now. One weekday night last week, I went driving around with some friends. On our little drive, which as you should know by now implies a backroad, we came across a field that took me back a number of year to my Senior year of high school. It brought to mind a memory from that time that involved both the same field and one of the very friends that was with me in the vehicle. Years ago, we had been partaking in the exact same form of entertainment. While in this field in my before mentioned friend's truck, his transmission suddenly went haywire. Now to those in the truck, it may not have been such a surprise coming from Old Red. You see, the only gear we could seem to use was that of the reverse variety. Far from town and with little cell phone service (I had only had a cell phone for about a year at the time), we did what we had to and drove in reverse from the pond damn in the field and back to my friend's family's farm house. Now being in that field again, near that same pond damn, I was helpless to my memory of the night that had occurred years before. As I thought about that night, another oxymoron came to mind:

Even when you feel like you are stuck in reverse, you can still reach your destination.

And this thought brought to mind the prophetic scripture that adorns a magnet on my mom's fridge that came as a gift from my GB. It reads:

"If you don't know where you are going... you'll end up someplace else." 

Now I know that some people may take this as a warning that you better have a good idea of where you're going, but I took it as saying that it doesn't really matter. If you don't know where you're going, you don't know where you will end up, and to me that spells a little adventure. You don't have to have life planned out, because the best parts are the ones you never expected; the ones that deviate from the plan. What a perfect token for present times. I feel like so many people I have spoken to lately feel lost. They may not have that life plan, and it's okay not to have such a thing. Who knows what life can lead to. It is the action of allowing ourselves the opportunity to be a little lost that will ultimately lead us to the next stage, the next adventure, the next chapter in what we all deserve to have: a long and exciting life. 

So as I look at the clock and realize I should be asleep (that and the fact that this post pretends to be coming from years of knowledge and actual life experience... ha ha), before I tear into what promises to be some amazing vegetable beef soup, I say let's seize the opportunity to be a little lost. The unknown promises to hold some unforgettable adventures and some amazing opportunities. Instead of looking to where the path we travel should or may lead, why not take a pause to seize the moment in which we stand.

And on a final note, I am not sure where the earnest tone came from tonight but I promise to post a much more entertaining memory tomorrow or the day after. I already have one in mind. And finally, I have always been a huge fan of green beans, but I must confess that I feel they do not belong in soup of any kind.