Another 100,000 Miles

My sweet little green convertible drove past 175,000 miles yesterday as I was winding through yet another seemingly untouched portion of Texas. Over the last two years, we have logged over 100,000 miles together traveling this magnificent state on roads that are new and smooth and a few that unfortunately, were not. Never in my wildest visions and dreams did I ever think that I would spend this much time driving or that I would spend this much time traveling Texas. What struck me yesterday as my little car passed this milestone with me was that I have driven in almost all 50 states of this USA without a GPS. Now, driving alone in Texas, my GPS has become an oddly close friend.

Having driven so much in the past without one, I was very skeptical and leery about even owning a GPS. We had a hard time together for a long time because it just couldn’t be trusted. When it would send me in a direction that made absolutely no sense, I would not mind it, second guess it and continue to travel the way that I knew would be best. It got the blame when I was lost no matter what. I would test it in Austin, where I live and if it didn’t send me to a favorite location the way that I would normally go, it would confirm to me that I was going to be right more often that it was.

I freely admit, now, how wrong I can be. One day I was traveling, again, in the middle of nowhere when I made a conscience decision, for no particular reason other than probably boredom, to once again not mind my GPS directions. I ended up on a nine mile stretch of deeply rutted dirt road much too narrow to turn around in. The trees on either side were thick and heavy and I started to sweat and breathe a little too hard feeling a little too fearful. My little car is very low to the ground so it took me an hour to travel these nine terrible miles. It took me just under an hour to decide that it was time to mind my GPS without question.

Since giving my power to my newly found old friend, I have seen places and things that have blessed me. In the middle of nowhere, I have driven around a corner into a wide open space and seen sunsets as big as the whole Texas sky. I have seen deer, goat, cows and many other amazing animals enjoying their natural habitat. I have visited small diners in remote places and had the best coffee and meals offered with the sincerest of smiles. I have seen magnificent homes on top of hills, in the middle of open spaces and tucked up against their barns. I have seen ranch gates that looked like the entrance gates to heaven and ranch gates that were modest, private and small yet equally as welcoming.

I gave power to my GPS and it opened my eyes and led me to new and now cherished experiences. I have to wonder, what else I might be holding onto that in its release, I may be blessed. What are you holding onto that you need to give up control over? An unfaithful customer? An unhealthy business or personal relationship? A commitment that drains you of both energy and time? An employee that is a bad egg and will always be a bad egg? A time management system that is not working?

I talk to my little car and yes, she talks back. She is digging the scenery as much as I am and we’ve decided that here just might be another 100,000 miles in us both. I don’t talk to my GPS any more. Didn’t do either of us any good when I did. Now I just give her control and enjoy the ride.