Your eyes open. It’s 3:30am. You don’t need to be on the road for 3 more hours. The pull of sleep draws you back into your slumber. But something is calling to you to move now. You can’t identify where it is coming from but the call to get an earlier start quickly overpowers the pull to return to your sleep.
You get ready, fill your coffee cup, and find yourself on the road by 4:30am.
There are 5 hours of empty desert roads lying ahead of you. With nothing but the stereo and your hot coffee to keep you company you sit contemplatively behind the wheel.
You remain as yet unaware of what it is that compelled you to be on the road at this hour… far earlier than you’d planned. But you’re here now. So why continue to think about it?
It’s been an hour. The occasional trucker moves to the right as you move quickly down the highway.
You take note as the dim light of the dawn appears on the horizon.
Onward you drive. Another hour. Suddenly your whimsical contemplations are interrupted by a warmth gently touching your right shoulder. You slowly turn your gaze to the horizon to the east. There it is. The yellow sun just beginning to make its way over the cactus laden mountains in the distance.
Barely aware, you notice as your subconscious veers the car slowly to the right lane. The truckers slow and move to the left… and begin to pass you by.
Your conscious battles your subconscious… “keep going, you’re making great time”. But the subtle subconscious call that you had noticed earlier is now a very present thought, “do not take this chance away from yourself.” You notice as your car pulls onto the shoulder of the empty highway. You feel the wind of a passing truck just a few feet from your face as your feet exit the car…
One after the other, they carry you around the car and to the guard rail. You watch peacefully as the sun rises over the silent desert landscape.
And it’s in that moment that you realize something. Although you’re here now, staring at the desert vista before you, you understand that the world has taken you on quite an unexpected journey.
It has taken you far away from here, the place where you are from. You call a new place home now. A place quite different from the one you stand in at this moment. For now, the desert is no longer a place where you live, it is a place you visit.
But a certain understanding becomes ever clearer with each passing moment. As you watch the desert sunrise, you remember… the desert made you what you are. It will always be home.
The rising sun crescendo’s over the mountain tops. A single ray of light pierces the sky landing squarely on your eyes, almost as though it left its origin knowing its final destination was to you… in this place… in this moment.
You look onward for another moment.
The automaticity of it all fades. You shake yourself to your senses and realize there’s much road left to travel. You know that this moment, like all others, must come to an end.
You get back in the car, a slight smirk on your face. The open road lies in wait and the gas pedal depresses.
Your destination is calling. What experience lies in front is unknown. But one thing is certain. You’re happy that you’re on the path. Because you didn’t take this chance away from yourself.
Joey Szolowicz is a Lifestyle, Nutrition and Health Blogger and Vlogger. For weekly tips join, his community here.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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From The Good Men Project on Medium
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