Obstacles or Opportunities?

This week my message from my Angels seems to be about obstacles. Life isn’t always all about traveling down a paved highway to our ultimate destiny. Sometimes they divert traffic on that highway to work on the road.

I guess it started about a week ago. I had a phone meeting with a woman who I was discussing the possibility of turning my blog into a book. I had given her the information to read the blog before our meeting and she had done so. When we began talking, her first words to me were, what makes you think anyone would buy this? (I can’t remember the exact words, but that is how I interpreted her words.) I had never even considered the fact that maybe no one would be interested in reading it. I had visualized my book in bookstores, signing copies for lines of people. I had “seen” it on an end rack at Target one day while walking down the book aisle. I now realize that she may say that to anyone wanting to publish a book, but the question knocked my confidence level down to the ground.

Then came what my husband would call unrelated events, but I saw them as synchronistic. Appliances in the house began to fail. First the air conditioner, then the vacuum cleaner, then the washing machine. I was questioning my ability to live a charmed life. I have recently had the vision of myself gliding through life with roller skates on, no challenges, no disappointments, everything going my way. And here comes some challenges.

So Sunday night I am coming home from a class and dinner with friends and any traffic light I came to turned red upon my approach. The GPS on my phone was giving me directions I did not understand. There was road construction. There were cars creeping along well under the speed limit. There was no opportunities to pass them. I called out to the Angels, “hey come on, now, are you off the job tonight or what?” I finally got home completely exhausted and more than a little irritated.

I recently posted a blog called “Laugh” and laughing was the last thing I wanted to do. Sometimes I think the Angels allow challenges to come our way to see if we are going to practice what we preach. Now I will be the first one to admit that a broken washing machine and red traffic lights are minor irritations compared to the challenges that some others face every morning when they wake up. But I made up my mind to move forward. I decided to laugh and feel good and thank the washing machine for offering me the opportunity to remember what it was like when I had to go to a laundromat on a regular basis.

I think it is okay if we grieve our situation for a time. It is all part of life. But at some point we have to pick ourselves up by our bootstraps and say “Okay, Joy, that is enough, now let’s move forward. Let’s have fun. Let’s dance through our challenges and choose to feel good no matter what.” And I send love to my washing machine and I ask the Angels for someone to come and fix it and until then I will wash clothes at the laundromat.

So were the Angels sending me a message through all the red lights? Were they saying, slow down, Joy, obstacles ahead? Maybe. Maybe they were just trying to see if I would take it in stride. Wait for the light to turn green and then take off running. For now I am just going to be thankful that I have breath to breathe in and out every day and good enough eyesight to drive and be able to see those red lights. And when the light turns green I am off and running again!