Every so often, Life turns me around. Life changes my plans, cancels my reservations, derails my train, and rains on my parade. Life gives me what I need instead of what I thought I wanted. Life is wiser than me. It sees farther ahead, where I can’t see. When I look back later, then I see. Then I can recognize the collapse of my well-laid plan as the blessing it actually was.

Life has turned me around and faced me in the right direction a number of times when I was forging ahead like a 40-car freight train, with no idea where I was going, really. And where I was trying to go, had I gotten there, would have proven to be a dead-end for me, body and soul. Instead Life opened another door, one I had not consciously chosen, or perhaps even seen before.

That is not to say it was easy – or clear. I have come through some pain, some loss and sorrow, uncertainty, confusion, and terrifying fear. I’ve had my share of lonely times and I have had some hard miles traveling.

But sometimes what looked and felt like a disaster, or a massive failure, turned out to be a magnificent unexpected opportunity to grow, one I would not have had the courage to choose without being pushed by life or by necessity. Having to look inside myself when there was no other place to go, I learned to trust what I found there. Down inside the depths of me, I found (what everyone finds when we go that deep) the direct connection to all of God. All strength, all courage, all help, waiting for me to discover it.

Sometimes Life/God/the Conscious Universe gives me what I need instead of what I thought I wanted. Troubles in life redirect me and reconnect me, lovingly if not always gently. Depending on how far I’ve taken myself off course, there may be pain in the turning.

I make mistakes. Life corrects my course. God/Life does not make mistakes. I know this. But because I’m just me, and still learning how to see, sometimes it takes a while before I can see it.

After I have lived a while I can look back from the crest of a different hill, and see the landscape behind me clear and plain. The miles, the storms, the rocks and rivers I stumbled over and struggled through are beautiful from here. They were the way I came to where I am, and I will go on from here until forever.