Shopping Life Choices.....

To everything there is a season and for everything there is a purpose. These are ideas that have been shared over the years. This week, however, the meaning took on a new understanding. For years I had looked at a certain SUV with awe and appreciation. On the highway, when one passed, it brought a smile to my face and a "what if" line of thinking on the things I'd do if I were in it. It wasn't that it wasn't attainable, or even available, it was simply something I considered "frivilous" on my long list of things to do. Before I even noticed, it was twelve years since I first desired such a automobile and the life it represented. It became the symbol of the success others seemed to easily achieve and enjoy,but that would be somehow unattainable for me.


Yesterday I had the opportunity to take one of those vehicles on the road. At the end of my drive I realized two things that were much more valuable than the drive itself. One, that life is entirely too short to impose rules that curtail or prevent simple, attainable pleasures from happening. Two, that it's really silly to place alot of value in anything you haven't driven yourself, lives included. You see it turned out that that particular SUV drove like a bucket of rocks, it wasn't fun, alluring, or even comfortable as I'd imagined, not even the newest version. I wouldn't have enjoyed it on road trips nor even kept it most likely for over 3 months. It made me really consider the imagined life the folks had in my assumptions of their lives. Later that day I drove a vehicle I hadn't considered to be as hip or as fun, and you guessed it, not only was it fabulously fun to drive, it was beyond comfortable.....and in a few hours I was experiencing something I had only dreamed about with my friends loaded up on a cold winter's drive to see Christmas lights as we trodged through the winter weather without a hitch.
I laughed at myself all the way home for truly, I had many years of "what ifs" built into that red SUV....I had bought into the "I can't/shouldn't have it" syndrome so many of us spend our time giving power to.....and the truth was I didn't even want the one I thought I did when reality crossed the fantasy. This is not always the case though, while the exact vehicle was indeed, not the fantasy one, it turned out through test driving several choices, the dream of loading friends up and rambling on together was indeed an attainable goal, and judging from last Friday, a life activity I waited entirely too long to experience first hand.....


Questions to Ponder:

What do you dream about having or being that you do not take actions to "try out" or plan to achieve? Are the reasons you feel you can not achieve those dreams valid, or simply out of your comfort zone? What dreams could you "test drive" if you only allowed yourself to?

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