Turning Right.

I am driving toward the library on Reed's Lake in order to catch up on some over-due reading.
[Remember that whole discipline thing? yea. About that...]
It's a warm fall evening, the trees resplendent, dripping with gold. I'm having trouble catching my breath and decide to go for a walk instead. I need to clear my head, and if I've waited this long to read what's another couple hours eh? I park at D&W and start wandering. I don't really have a plan figured out, no route established. I know these streets so I'm just wandering, not in a loop, but back and forth, doubling back and crossing over. The leaves are magnificent. Casting their warm yellow glow, almost outdone by the fantastic sunset. Almost. I let my mind go, here and there. Meandering just as freely as my feet. I reign it in for a quick prayer now and again, but I can't seem to hold its attention for long. As I'm intently studying the hot pink highlight on the clouds through gaps in the orange foliage, I tilt my head back and breathe deep.

I'm excited about thoughts of...well something. Something I will not publish here. My ideas seem as quick to change as West Michigan weather, and I've decided to "treasure these things in my heart" instead of talking about it with everyone because then I have to once again explain why nothing ever happened. Anyway, I'm getting away from the real lesson and beauty here...

I tilt my head back and breathe deep. I can feel passion bubbling up inside me like a slow leak. Not explosive excitement, but that quiet joy and deep peace. It's what I've been feeling like I've been missing. And it comes at the thought of another one of my crazy ideas, which just might, hopefully, turn out to not be so crazy after all. As the sunset diminishes, I think about my route back to my car. I need to turn north, and any of these next streets will do. I start looking to my right, waiting for one that looks pleasant. I finally see one, lined with small trees that are a fleshy orange and yellow, like the skin of a peach. It's gorgeous. I hesitate. Pausing, I look down the sidewalk ahead of me. There are a few green signs signifying other options further down the way. Should I keep going? Maybe there is an even more beautiful road up ahead. I start to move forward, just barely shifting my weight, and then abruptly turn and head down the aforementioned peach colored street. In that brief pause, I decided that this road was it. Maybe there was an even more picturesque road further down. But there is a beautiful road laid right out in front of me now.
So why would I continue along, missing out on something I know is beautiful, just because there might be something further down?

And what if their isn't?

What if this road, right here, is the most splendid path I could take? And I passed it up because of a feeling of "what if"?

O, how superbly this moment applies to my life. I have no way of knowing what streets lie ahead. Am I going to base my decisions on a hypothetical red lined street in the future? Or am I going to head down the road to my right-because it is breath-takingly gorgeous, saturated in warm colors, beckoning my to come and taste its goodness?

And there it is again, settling over me like a blanket. Bringing welcomed warmth, like the first days of spring sunshine. That still tranquility, beautiful inaudible rest.