This upcoming month of March will see me making multiple trips into downtown, to the Virgina Mason Hospital, as I help a friend who will be having major surgery.
The most direct route to take to get to the hospital requires a very challenging traffic maneuver, where coming off the bridge from Lake Washington I will need to merge, coming from the left, into the super-heavy backed-up traffic on I-5, then immediately cross all 5 lanes of traffic in less than one mile to exit off into downtown on the right.
Hubby has no problem doing this traffic maneuver. My daughter has no problem doing this traffic maneuver. I, on the other hand, am freaked out about this traffic maneuver. I have never done it and, if at all possible, I hope to avoid ever doing it.
Therefore, I studied my map app and found a back road way which I can go instead.
Immediately after coming off the bridge, I can take the very first exit … which is the UW (University of Washington) exit. Then, all I simply need to do is turn left and it’s a straight shot for several blocks around the back of Capitol Hill, then a right turn to go up and over Capitol Hill … and voila, it leads straight to the hospital. Easy enough. Avoids all the drama of a 5-lane cross-over in super heavy backed up traffic!
The only problem is – my map app does not know this obscure back road way which I want to take.
I need to put the hospital address into my map app, so I know my end destination. But the bold blue line of the gps insists that I take the route requiring the 5-lane cross-over-in-less-than-a-mile.
I decided a trial run would be most beneficial. Certainly wouldn’t want to have my friend in the car headed down for surgery first thing in the morning, in heavy rush hour traffic, and get lost … and not get her to her surgery on time. That would be terrible.
I asked hubby if he would drive our trial run, so I could study the map and focus on the landmarks for when I drive the route.
Our first challenge came when we reached the UW exit … there wasn’t just one exit – there were two different road options. Which do we take??
The bold blue line on the gps was no help … it was insisting we continue on to the 5-lane cross-over.
So we randomly picked one at the last minute.
We came rolling up to the stoplight, only to discover that we had chosen wrong. At the stoplight, all the lanes were required to turn right only. We couldn’t even cheat and attempt to go left, because as we made the right-hand turn, the carpool lane appeared out of nowhere on our left making the same right-hand turn as well.
We were sandwiched in-between multiple lanes of traffic all turning right.
Not only that, once we had completed the turn, we were now in the mess of UW traffic. There was nowhere to turn around. So on we drove, in the opposite direction of the way we needed to go.
I was so glad hubby was driving, so I could study the map! The bold blue line was aggravatingly annoying, as it kept trying to re-route us over to I-5. We don’t want to go that way!
With every turn we made in our attempt to get back to the route we intended to go, the bold blue line would re-route and try to get us to go the way it wanted us to go! That bold blue line was so distracting!
After about a 10-min detour, which took us right down the main road through the middle of the UW campus, we finally made it back to where we had first exited – this time headed in the correct direction.
The trial run down to the hospital was hugely beneficial!
I now know where all three covered patient drop-off/loading areas are. I know where all three parking garages are. I feel very comfortable and confident in being able to drive our friend down for her surgery and follow-up appointments.
The whole experience made me think how similar to life this is.
In life, we have an “end destination” we would like to reach. We study the “map” of life and see that this particular “route” to reach that “end destination” has challenges which might cause us problems!
So we further study “life’s map” (such as: studying career paths, where should we live, what should we do with our life, etc. …) and we find a “route” which will work for us.
But everything in society wants us to take this other “route.” Society in general, friends, and people in our life all have expectations of us!
For example – when our kids were little, we did not have our son in little league baseball, nor did we have our daughter in ballet. According to what we were “supposed to do” we were not following the prescribed “route” which was expected of us! People thought our kids were surely missing out! They thought our kids would not be “socially adapted” if they weren’t in little league baseball or ballet.
But at that time in our life, that “route” was not one our small family could handle. I didn’t have the physical strength or energy for that “route” … nor did we have the extra finances to travel that “route.”
Hubby and I chose a different “back road route” to go instead. And it worked out great. We ultimately reached the “end destination” of raising & launching our kids into the world as responsible adults.
Life is so busy! Busy like rushing, heavy, backed-up traffic! The blue line on “life’s gps” tells us we need to be going this way … turn here … turn there.
But is that really truly the way which is best for us, personally?
We need time to “study the map.” We need time to take a serious look at our life and where we are going. We need time to look at the “route” we are taking and consider whether or not this is the best path to take to get where we need to go.
But there is no time! Life is rushing! Life is heavy and backed-up with demands, commitments, things we need to do! There is no time to study the map!
And even when we do take time to study “life’s map,” and when we do attempt to go the “route” which we have determined is best for us, we still find ourselves (like hubby and me on Saturday), accidentally in the wrong lane … headed in the wrong direction.
This is life. We get “turned around” in life.
We wind up going down bizarre “roads” we never intended … such as down the main road through the middle of the UW campus! But it was cool! I had never driven down the main road through the middle of the UW campus. It was beautiful.
And so, as we are trying to find our way back to the correct “route” in life, we too find ourselves accidentally “driving” down through places we didn’t intend, but which are beautiful and benefit our life nonetheless.
Let’s not get so caught up in the rush and hurry of life that we don’t take time to look at our own personal “life’s map.” The way the blue line is telling us to go might not be the best “route” for us to take.
We might need to pull over to the side of the road and study the map for a bit.
