Road Construction

Well it’s that time of year again.  If you have recently taken a road trip or maybe you have even encountered this annoyance on your way to work.  The slower speeds, the orange cones redirecting traffic, the re-routed detours, and the seemingly never-ending line of cars attempting to squeeze into one lane.  The summer time is known as a time for improving our roads and although this can be time-consuming and frustrating for most of us, it is a necessity in keeping our roads safe and effective.  Have you ever thought about what might happen if road improvements were not done?  It can be difficult to think about the positive effects the road construction will have when it is completed while we are sitting in the traffic.   But the next year when we take that same route and we are able to flawlessly drive through the same place; will we remember the annoyance that we had gone through the year before to make this year’s travels so effortlessly?  What happens when our life needs upgrades and improvements?  What do these life constructions look like?  How do they impact our life during their construction?  What about afterwards?

There are times in all of our lives when we need to make some life improvements and go through periods of construction.  How do we deal with these periods of “construction”?  For many of us we may experience similar emotions to when we are sitting in our car during road construction; frustrated, anxious, angry, confused, or sad.  So maybe the big question to entertain is how do we interpret our experiences of personal constructions?  When we are faced with these situations are we able to see that our personal constructions are likely occurring as a way to improve our lives, but in the midst of those improvements life can get pretty challenging.  During these challenging times are we able to see how our current struggles may be laying down a new road for us?  During this time of construction, our lives may take several detours along the way.  But much like road detours, these may occur because we need to work on our main road or need to create a new path.

Life constructions can appear when we are least expecting them or they may be planned.  As long as we can recognize that these constructions are only detours in our lives and not dead ends, we can continue making the improvements in our lives.  Maybe we need to add another lane that could provide us with the time we need to take care of ourselves.  Or maybe we need to create a new, stronger road to help provide us with a new direction.  Whatever constructions that are happening in your life, know that the end result is worth all of the challenges en route.