Photo Credit: Melanie R. Jordan Mother Nature was not happy at my local suburban Chicago park!
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In my Chicago suburb, we had a round of severe thunderstorms over the 4th of July holiday weekend that dumped nearly six inches of rain on us that were accompanied by wind gusts as high as 70 miles per hour.
Instead of being out in the next town over watching fireworks on July 3rd, which was their tradition, I nervously watched an overgrown tree outside. It was whipping around in the wind and rain as if it was fighting for its life, and begging to come inside out of the elements through my condo window. Fortunately, it did not.
Mother nature is apparently a supporter of Chicago festival season though. It all subsided in time to get a local concert and muted fireworks through drizzly skies in by the night of the 4th.
There were a lot of twigs and other debris around, but I really didn’t think much about any possible aftermath. Prior to the severe thunderstorms, like much of the country, we had severe heat warnings so I was confined to the air conditioned fitness track for my run/walk training.
That Monday morning, post severe everything, it was finally dry with brilliant blue skies and a temperature low enough, at least early in the day, that I thought I could tolerate an outdoors run/walk. The outside beckoned and I was game.
But as I entered the park, I saw a tree down right from its roots on the grass, as if it was a weed that had been picked by a giant.
Photo Credit: Melanie R. Jordan There’s a reason they call it “The Windy City!”
This scene fascinated me because none of our tornado warnings ever resulted in a sight like this. Even when I lived in Florida, I never saw a tree uprooted by a storm in this way.
Show’s over people, move on. Time to do our thing.
I started my first run interval and as I approached the back end of the loop, I saw the much bigger tree down across my path as shown at the start of this piece.
Now this was truly a shocker. There was no sign up warning of my coming upon this as I rounded the bend, or a helpful orange cone to warn of the situation. I had to sincerely hope that no geese or ducks that typically are visible in the park’s pond and grass were harmed in the making of this movie.
At that moment the thought hit me. This is such a depiction of the way life can be.
There will be times when your path forward is blocked.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve probably had your share of things that blocked your path—figuratively and literally—over the course of your life.
Traffic
Writer’s block
Those who block your career.
Even in motorsports, it’s a penalty to inappropriately block another car to defend your position on the track. Yes, some of my motorsports “almost” Flag Marshal wisdom coming out.
Most of the time though, it’s not any of these.
I have met the enemy and “they” are “us.”1
Unfortunately, my late Mom was a perfect example of being your own worst enemy.
She had a brilliant mind, but as smart as she was, she could never get out of her own way, and regularly filled her head with negative self-talk.
Sure she had many physical issues brought on by obesity and a sedentary lifestyle, but I truly feel her limiting self-beliefs did her in more than any of those.
She had an amazing vocabulary, often used to absolutely crush anyone who played Scrabble with her. Although I secretly suspected that at least some of the words she tried to advocate for may not have truly been in the dictionary.
“I can’t” was her most common expression. Even when you tried to offer up some positive ideas to help her, it was met with negativity.
It bothered me to no end that she lived her life in such a blocked fashion.
I imagine it did the same for my late Dad who always liked to keep things light.
I guess opposites really do attract.
I’ve already shared that I am very much my Father’s Daughter in my Father’s Day Without Fathers piece (works anytime of year by the way).
Another one of my Dad’s rules to live by was “Whatever Works!”
He used to say this so much, I got him a custom baseball cap with this phrase embroidered on it. He always wore those kind of hats in the Florida sun since a full head of hair had left him at an early age. I wish I had a picture of that hat to share.
It’s probably how he got along wth my Mom for all those years of marriage.
That philosophy was his answer to just about everything.
Where would you like to go to dinner?
We’re moving again.
I’m going to go join the circus (the real one, not the thing they call life).
Whatever works!
No matter what life threw up to block his path, and there was a lot of illness that did that in later years, he was positive and he was resilient.
As long as he could go out on one of his shopping adventures to Publix® and buy something on sale that wasn’t needed, he was good to go.
It’s another way I strive to be just like him. The attitude, not the shopping.
Although my husband does feel I sometimes overbuy sale items. Hmmm.
Photo Credit: Melanie R. Jordan I’m still in awe of this from the other side!
So back to my morning run/walk.
After marveling at Mother Nature’s handiwork, taking some pictures and reflecting on life for a few minutes, I decided to have some fun with the situation and mix up my path instead of taking the same old paved loop.
First, I turned around at the tree block and went around the loop counter-clockwise so I could eventually check out the tree from the other side. Hence the picture above.
Next time back, I turned right in front of the tree block onto a less-traveled section of the path I don’t usually go on, but plenty of others had to take this detour too so I felt safe enough. I enjoyed this new view so much, I did it a couple more times.
Then the last time, I took the shortest path and simply ran around the tree block onto the grass.
In my head I heard Dad say “whatever works!”
All of those did.
And isn’t that the point?
When life blocks your path somehow, the best path forward is simply to find another way. And there is likely more than one way.
Whatever works for YOU.
Wishing you maximum health and happiness always!
P.S. When in your life were you blocked by something or someone you don’t mind sharing? What did you do to find a way to deal with it?
Please comment. I’d love to hear your stories. They will inspire me and others who see it as well!
If you enjoyed this post, please be sure to like it (the heart icon) to help others find it, and please share it with others who could use some positivity to see their way through whatever is blocking them in their lives.
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1 Quote not of my origin. I’m not sure where I picked it up along the way. It apparently has an interesting history tied to a bragging military commander, an Earth Day poster and a comic strip.
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