Life as a journey

I've always pictured Life as a journey. It's so cliched, I know. Other times, Life is like a race, a fight, a roller coaster, a box of chocolates...you get the idea.

Today I was reading this book, and it mentioned about Life as a journey. And this time round, the meaning became more apparent to me.

I pictured myself taking a long drive to a far away land. My journey. As I drove, I came across beautiful mountain ranges. After a while, I saw a beautiful lake in the horizon. It was a great view. Then I passed some canyon. The sight took my breathe away. Since it's a long journey, I took a stop some place to rest. I carried on, and after some time, I passed all the beautiful mountains. After that, the desert loomed up ahead. So for the next few days, it was just driving through hot, barren land. Once that period was over, I reached the highway. The journey became much faster and smoother. After a couple of tolls, it was the city. Traffice began building up and everyone just got irritated. All the cars were honking. It was mayhem. The skyscrapers that surrounded the city made it a concrete jungle to begin with. Once all that was over, it was the quiet, empty road of the wilderness again. I got to see the mountains again. And then, since I was in a 4x4 vehicle, I decided to take a drive through the jungle and make a track of my own. Chart a path that I can call mine. The story goes on and on.

It was all imagination. But if Life is a journey, it would be something like that. In this picture, the scenery is always changing. The landscape is constantly evolving. If I look at my life that way, the situations and scenarios in my life will keep flipping its cards. One moment, it would be this story, then the next, it's another story. It's beginning to sink in that the journey may not be smooth and perfect as much as we want it to be. We may plan our path out, but the potholes are still there and we have to go through them. When the traffic gets too congested, it seems that life is slowing down. On the highway, we're just moving about too quickly to even enjoy some of life's littlest pleasures. The situations keep changing, but we have to keep moving on.

It is also a reminder to me not to hold on to tightly to a particular scenery. If I do, once the view changes, I'd be disoriented thinking that it would be the same still. Remember and take in as much as the view allows us. Once it changes, the key is to adapt to the new surroundings.

At this moment, it feels like I just left the main road, and got dirty in the off-roads. Time to charter a path of my own.