Sometimes I secretly wish I had a map showing exactly where I am, the next step and where I’m to go. As many years as I’ve learned about and practiced living in the moment and tuning in to my inner guidance and intuition, I still often sigh thinking, can you just tell me what to do, give me a map?
I’m pretty certain you have a map app on your phone and have used it many times. I use mine often in order to get to an address I’ve never been to before, especially if I’m out of town. One afternoon, I was driving along following the familiar voice telling me, “in a quarter mile, turn right on…” whatever the street name was. I had to chuckle thinking how great it would be if I had a map app for life – in twenty minutes call… – post this on social media – do not go to that event – it’s time to quit your job, to quit doing… whatever. You get the idea. If you’re like me, sometimes even small decisions can be difficult, as can just avoiding coasting on auto-pilot while missing all the cue’s, that while voiceless, are guiding you nonetheless.
With all the technology, we’ve become so used to everything being lined out and can have a relatively clear picture of what lies ahead. Of course, we know there are always bumps and unexpected turns, but it made me wonder how much more stress we experience when those bumps and unexpected turns do show up when, no doubt, technology is somewhat programming our mind. We’re moving right along smoothly, then one little bump turns us upside down, stressors are activated, and we’re pretty much rendered deaf to the guiding directions or railing against what wasn’t supposed to happen. Oh, the impatience with expectations.
What has happened is that we’re in app mode and are operating in much the same way as when looking at the map app that lines out a route, how many miles, how long it will take to drive it, and points of interest along the way. The problem is, life doesn’t have an app. Something that should take ten minutes takes an hour, someone changes the plan at the last minute, you’re late and traffic is backed up, you overcook a meal that was supposed to be fabulous, Wally World is out of the one item you desperately need – or suddenly, in one moment, your life will never be the same again. Nope, no app for that kind of stuff.
At least with a map app, if you get off course, it tells you exactly what to do to get to your destination. That actually may be one thing living life from within and a map app have in common. We have an inner guidance system that will gently guide us over those frustrating bumps or lovingly lead us step by step navigating us through a complete GPS repositioning, and there aren’t any shortcuts.
No shortcuts to driving 100 miles, to baking a cake, to getting enough sleep. And there certainly aren’t any to living life well. But I wonder, when navigating our day or even a long-term plan, how often we’re living life as though we’d simply opened our map app that will tell us to take the next exit or how many miles are ahead of us.
Our inner guidance system is lovingly and gently revealing details that will make the changes we need one small step at a time as we let go of our perfectly laid down plans and expectations. It’s almost as though we’ve built our own life app when the truth is GPS technology isn’t so new at all. From the beginning of time, we were created with an inner guidance system more powerful than any technology there will ever be.
A friend and I recently took a day trip just to do something different and have some fun. We checked out some places to go and decided one thing we would do was check out a couple of the many wineries in our state. We didn’t have plans laid out in stone. We just decided we would simply head out and see what there was to see on the way. It was a good thing because the day started with a little bump. My friend locked her keys in her car which delayed us an hour. Had we mapped out a timeline, we both would have been stressed out before we even got on the road – to take a de-stressing day trip.
As it turned out, we drove into the little town where we knew a winery was and found a little place called the Rock Café right around lunch time. It had a bit of an old log cabin look and feel and we weren’t sure what we were getting ourselves in to. But we quickly realized we’d stumbled upon a treasure. The food was beyond spectacular and certainly nothing you would expect in a small town in Oklahoma. And certainly not anything we could have mapped out. We left there so happy and FULLfilled and made our way down the road to the winery.
We walked into the cutest little old country home repurposed to an adorable little gift shop as you enter, complete with a tasting bar. We would have filled up the car with our finds if we’d had the means to do so, but we each found something special we’d wanted forever. Not just a little knick-knack we liked, but really unique items of great desire. Then, to reveal the divine grace of our day, we were invited to enjoy a glass of wine on the most lovely, peaceful deck overlooking the picturesque vineyards. Ahhhhh!
No, this kind of life has no map. A map shows the landscape, and we did use our map apps for logistics, but we didn’t need a map to lean in and explore and experience. From there, we had a few twists and turns when a couple places we wanted to see were closed, and if we’d been in app mode, we would have been ticked the app hadn’t informed us. Instead, we simply found other things to do and allowed the day to divinely unfold.
I’m grateful for the day with my friend and the gifts and the joy the day bathed us in. I’m grateful for the convenience of my map app, but mostly, that every time I use it, I will be reminded, life is not mapped out, life is not an app.
With fewer expections,
Ruthie