Life Needs Repaving Now and Then
After years of patching and resealing, our old driveway is getting a complete makeover. As I watch the process, I can't help but think of the parallels to my life. Year after year, little patches and fixes kept the driveway functioning, yet it stopped looking and performing at its best quite a while ago.
There have been certain points in my life where the patches and adjustments left me feeling that things weren't quite right, and that my life was certainly not being all it could be, on any level.
And several times, just as the paving crew first came to break up and cart away the entire surface of the old driveway, I've had to break through old attitudes and habits. The subsurface is seldom pretty, but its very roughness and raw feel lend a kind of excitement about what to do next. It is also unsettling and means a break in routine, which can make me feel grouchy, anticipatory, annoyed, excited, sometimes in very short cycles.
The preparation of the surface is eye-opening and really gives food for thought. A lot of old stuff is scraped away, some new fill is added and then worked over with a machine to get the gradients right and tamp it all down. This is a multi-step process, just as it is in life. Preparing to take a leap to the next stage in life takes thought and planning and preparation.
The preparation process generally leads to more questions, for which answers and solutions must be sought. The process can cycle several times before I have that necessary feeling that now I can rebuild my life properly.
This morning, finally, the new driveway surface will be applied. Once that's done, it will require 4 days to cure and harden before we can drive on it again. The new surface is tender, and can be damaged easily during the curing time. Whenever I've made a big change in my life, there is definitely a period where my feelings are a bit raw and tender, and my attitude and confidence can easily be bruised or called into question in such a way that it's difficult to keep going at times.
And yet - and yet, there are also those moments of pure excitement and bliss at moving forward in my life, at changing over to something new that makes me feel happier and more fulfilled. As I move forward and keep building on the change, my confidence grows and I get stronger and more sure of myself.
Sometimes, in life - and in driveways - you just have to rip off the old surface and dig deeper to change your life and move forward. It's not always an easy process, and it takes a lot of work, but it is necessary to keep growing, and it is deeply satisfying.
Photo Credits:
Road Work Ahead
Rolling
Life Needs Repaving Now and Then
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