How Far & How Long

This not so good picture was taken near a waterfall in Maine this summer. It was my son's birthday and we were off to explore the wilderness. He was cooking steaks by the van while Jessica and I were sent to see the falls a couple of hundred yards down the trail. Well the distance round trip was actually about 2.5 miles. My son fits the old Mainer joke about things being "Just down the road a piece." I don't think he's unusual though.Did you ever notice that perception of time and space are not always clear to people. We laugh (when it is not our kids) when kids ask. "Are we there yet?" a thousand times on any trip in the car. It seems as though they think the car should be an instantaneous time distance transporter. Our very adult answer to the question "How much longer?" might be something like "We'll get there when we get there." That's not too obvious is it?

I think in life that kind of problem is often the issue. In fact we don't know where we are going and we won't know how far it is or how long it takes until we get there. Life is unpredictable even amidst it's routine. Even when day to day can seem so certain, life can take twists and turns at any moment that put you on a path to somewhere that will take so long and you have know idea what those are or even what they will look like.

When I put life in perspective and take a full look at mine I know I never could have seen the path I followed. If someone had asked me on graduation day 1961 what I was going to do or be I can tell you for sure that it would not have resembled my life. I think of work, I think of parenthood, I think of travel and grandchildren and relationships and health and so much of it was not even in the picture.

Lately it has been even more clear that answers to questions like "How long?" or "How far?" are really quite impossible to know. The great destination may be known but the intermediate ones are increasingly unclear and the timetable unknown. Life is suddenly very different and what's next unknown. I can say that I think I'll recognize the destinations when I get to them if I get to them. How long will it take? I don't know because I'm not sure where I'm heading, but "I'll get there when I get there." and that will be just fine with me.