When you walk into my home, you better be wearing your readers. HaHa. My house is full of words. Reminders for life. My kids’ friends like to count all the words they see when they visit. One of the most common words you will find in my house is JOY. (of course!) However, one of my favorite sayings I recently purchased and hung prominently in my kitchen doorway is “Take a wrong turn”. This is one of my current favorites.
Recently my longtime friend wrote that every summer when she visits her family cottage and goes out for a run she has ALWAYS turned left out of the driveway to begin her run. For fourteen years she has been turning left. She wrote that for some reason she took a wrong turn and went right. She said “it was one of the best runs I’ve had in my life!” What??? A wrong turn provided something wonderful?
So often I think we find these words to carry a negative connotation: we define it as doing something incorrectly or having events go in a negative way or finding yourself in a bad or difficult situation. Well, NO MORE! This month I am challenging you to not only take a wrong turn but to enJOY all that this unexpected detour has to show you. We are afraid of making mistakes. We are afraid of not following the crowd and being different; Of trying new things; Of risk. NO MORE! I am trying to challenge my family to take more wrong turns. Look for more hidden gems. Find more unexpected joy. Delight in the surprises that show up in this wrong direction.
On a recent 24 hour wander weekend road trip my daughter and I took, we took many wrong turns (not on purpose, but we are terrible navigators!!!) and found a new charming cafe to eat a deliciously fresh prepared lunch. We found crazy fun graffiti walls to take silly pictures. We stumbled upon a herd of cows mooing so loudly we both giggled and called back to the cows!
Were we late getting to where we were supposed to end up? Yes. But did we care? No! Delight in the chaos of being lost for a moment. Look around and see the world like a child sees the animals at the zoo for the first time. Open your eyes big and get caught up in this new place. Stop and be grateful for what is there in that moment: a stranger’s smile, a brightly colored garden, the smell of a nearby bakery… In the grand scheme of life, it’s sometimes these wrong turns that actually lead us on the right path!
Your challenge this August is to find joy by taking some wrong turns. Go a different way to the grocery store. Take the long way home. Go for a morning walk and turn the opposite way than you normally would. Life is happening all around us and in life there is beauty, there is love and there is joy. Go find some on your wrong turn!
Would love to hear from you on what adventures your wrong turns have given you.
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