Where Is Your Road Leading You?

Does your life make you happy?
Is time to start renovating your life?

June. The first month of summer for those of us north of the equator. (But, yes, I believe that summer begins here with Memorial Day weekend and ends with Labor Day weekend. I call them the bookends of summer.)
For better than 50 years, the beginning of June felt like a new year. One of the many “New Year’s” celebrations I ascribe to: January 1, my birthday, the beginning of summer, the beginning of the school year (although retirement brought this one to a closure), and my wedding anniversary.
For almost three months, I could stay up later and get up later. I was no longer a school student, but a student of life. I rode my bike and explored my world. We took a vacation to somewhere, sometimes just to see the grandparents. I breathed fresh air, got exercise, and connected with my neighbor friends in ways we couldn’t during the school year.
As I transitioned to college, however, summer included a job that forced me to stay on some sort of schedule.
After graduation, my summer life as a teacher was packed with workshops and classes. It was packed with preparing for the next year by reading new material (I taught English so when we changed anthologies, I was usually reading a number of new selections.) and creating new worksheets, activities, and tests. It was never a time where I could go and sit out by a pool every day.
BUT, June, July, and August gave me time to reflect on myself and evaluate my life as it was and decide what changes I could make.
On YOUR journey through life, you probably have a number of things stuffed in the backpack you are carrying while juggling a number of issues at once: your physical well-being (health & fitness), your mental well-being (your past, your responsibilities, your stress), your relationships, your job / career,
Then, life hands you an experience or tragedy that forces you to pause and evaluate your life. Do you go on? OR, do you begin to pave a new road for yourself? A road that fits you.
- Is it time to begin an exercise component of your life?
- Is it time to start eating more with your long term health in mind?
- Is it time to put your past in your past and move forward?
- Is it time to connect more with family and friends?
- Is it time to learn some techniques to de-stress your life?
- Is it time to change jobs or career paths?
- Is it time to stand up for yourself and be more assertive about the things you want?
- Is it time to get involved in social issues instead of being a silent bystander?
We can choose how we view life events: are they a speed bump, a detour, or an exit from the path you are on to a better direction.
Sometimes our lives seem to be on a road that leads to a dead end, sometimes our lives have so many twists and turns it makes us dizzy, but sometimes exits appear (opportunities) and we choose to take that exit or just pass it by.
Today, Monday, June 1 is a crossroads in time. Both the first day of the week and the first day of the month, and depending on how you look at it, the first day of summer.
It’s a good day to start looking at the road your life is taking.
Are you happy with the direction that your life is taking, or is it time to start paving another road?
Thanks for reading.
AND