The last few months at work we had been planning a weekend retreat in the mountains in upstate New York. After all the months of intense planning we finally had the retreat this past weekend. On Thursday afternoon I left work early and took the train from Manhattan to Poughkeepsie where I met up with my boss. I had called ahead of time and scheduled a cab to pick us up and take us to the resort and like clockwork as soon as I got out of the train station in Poughkeepsie the cabbie was there waiting for us.
As soon as he opened the door to his van I knew we were in for an adventure. The seats were covered in woven mexican rugs and there were no arm rests on the seats. As soon as we shut the doors he slammed his foot down on the gas and I had to grab onto the seat with both hands to keep from sliding all over the van. Not 10 minutes into the trip he signaled right and pulled off into a gas station. Unprofessional, but I figured it was an emergency nature calling situation so forgivable. We sat there in the van with the windows cracked in stifling heat for at least 10-12 minutes blocking 3 pumps at this gas station. By this point we were trying to figure out a contingency plan for getting to the resort.
Finally the cabbie came ambling along calmly carrying a cold drink and a couple of bags of snacks. My boss and I looked at each other like "What the heck?" Could you imagine being in a cab or an uber in Manhattan and the guy pulling off for a 10 minute break? We were relieved to be back en route especially me after already having travelled a 1.5 hour leg of the journey up until this point. After a half hour in the car I could tell that we weren't in Kansas anymore. Signs of civilization were few and far between and all you could see for miles were green rolling hills and occasional pools of water here and there.
The roads started to get incredibly windy and twisty the further from civilization we got. One would usually slow down once you hit terrain like this but our driver not only continued along at the same speed but increased his speed. I held onto my seat for dear life in the back trying not to go flying all over the van. My boss yelled up to him that he missed the turnoff for the road to the resort and he slammed on the breaks about 5 feet past the turnoff.
I grabbed a plastic bag and braced myself as a wave of nausea overtook me. After backing up and getting himself back en route we were at the resort about 7 minutes later. I got out of the car and breathed deeply filling my lungs with the fresh country air while trying to steady myself from our rollicking 45 minutes in the van.
It occurred to me that this situation I had experienced is not so different from the windy, twisty road of life. There are unexpected stops along the way that I never saw coming and wasn't necessarily happy about it. There have been uncomfortable moments that lasted much longer than I would have preferred and there were times when I felt I was being pushed to my limits and like I couldn't take anymore. This experience gave me perspective that in the BIG picture of life, situations that we find unpleasant or uncomfortable really don't last that long. Even though they're painful and feel like they take forever to pass through when we're in them we WILL eventually pass through them. G-d knows what He's doing driving us on the road of our lives. It may be painful, uncomfortable and at times unbearable but if we just grab on tight and hold on long enough we'll get to the beautiful resort He's got waiting for us at the end of our journey. All we have to do is sit back, relax and trust the driver.
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