Backroads

Recently, I was out driving around for work. When it was time to come home, I was stuck in one place for a long time due to a couple accidents that occurred along my route home. I looked at my GPS and noticed that the entire highlighted road towards my destination was painted red. As I inched my way closer to an exit, I made the decision to use backroads to make it home. It ended up that I needed to take backroads to backroads in order to finally make it home. A forty minute trip turned into a two hour trip.

I had choices. I could have stayed on the highway. It would have taken me even longer to make it home, but I would have been making the same everyday trip I always make. The simple and easy choice, yet somehow in the end this decision would have made me more miserable. Taking the backroads, I was given a rare opportunity to see new places. In addition, I was given an inadvertent gift of seeing all the different houses with their Christmas lights on for the night. What started out as a rainy and extremely slow commute turned into a winter wonderland of magical twinkle lights along the way.

I am going to get philosophical for a moment. This trip was a good reminder to me that sometimes I need to break the regular pattern and see what could be just a block over and running parallel yet a better option for me. It's a wonderful way to get a new perspective. If you ever find yourself in a rut, take the backroads.