A Detour or Routed Differently

Living gratefully today, I embrace the depth and clarity of emotions I am able to feel and identify. Practice makes progress possible, and meditation is one of my practices in this area. 

There are a couple of city streets that have been under construction in recent weeks in our community, on stretches of road we take regularly.  If needed, detours are brief, or we just change our route. It's nice to be familiar with our neighborhoods and community.

As I ran yesterday morning, fresh off a few rounds of one of the word games I play on my phone, I had words and letters on my mind. I realized that detour and routed have the same letters in them. The footfalls added up, as I ran past some of my spiritual landmarks here in town. Physical buildings where some of my own spiritual work gets a boost, thanks to the people and presence I experience in those spaces. 

I wondered about the contrast between a detour and being routed differently.  A detour typically takes us to the same route we were on, just a ways down the road. A different route may take us to new roads, changing perspectives, places we wouldn't have gone had we simply followed a detour. 

Apply this to the global pandemic and all that has transpired in recent months. Is this a detour, or am I being routed differently so I can learn and grow and change my ways in ways that matter? 

I have a pointedness, a keenness, to the purpose of my life that I did not have pre-pandemic. I also have pain, grief, and fear that make me uncomfortable. They also serve as my guides as I am routed differently. Routed to new places on many levels. 

I don't know about you, but I see now that if the pandemic is just a detour and I return to my usual route once it passes, then I have missed many opportunities to be routed to fresh locations that will inspire me in fresh ways.