Once again today, I had no intention of writing a Blog. I had other things on my mind, and was prepared to flesh out some lyrics that I had been working on. While stopped at a light this morning, I observed a little old man crossing the street. I noticed that his shoelace was untied, and I wondered if he was just waiting to cross the street to fix it. When he got across the street to the sidewalk he continued to walk, and still hadn't noticed the lace flopping around his shoe. I felt bad, and wondered if he was going to fall at some point. Just as I thought that, he stopped abruptly, and looked down, and walked doubled back to a storefront bench where he sat, tied his lace, and continued on his merry way. I wondered just where he was going. My light had changed, and I didn't even notice it, but no one was behind me, so I was able to witness this little uneventful event in this man's life. But when I saw that he noticed his laces, I said to myself, "Good..He figured it out" As I drove onward that image, and thought kept playing over and over in my head, until I finally saw how that little old man and his shoe reminded me of our lives, and how we all somehow figure it out.
We all get lost within life sometimes. We wind up losing ourselves, some people wind up doing bad things, associating with bad people, doing things that don't bring us happiness, or just messing their lives up in general. Life has a way of throwing all kinds of curves at you, and sometimes you just can't handle them, and therefore you begin to skate through life aimlessly trying to latch on to something, anything that makes you feel good, important, loved, or something that takes your mind away from how miserable you really feel. Everyone gets to that point in their lives where there is a "What am I doing?" moment where we are just plain lost, and directionless. Those times are hardest for us because There may be many factors involved. We may be getting older, and are unhappy with how our lives have gone. We may have had a major life change such as a death or divorce. We may have just hit rock bottom, and now are assessing how to climb out of the hole. At any rate, often there are many peripheral things that put us on skates, and we glide around on ice trying to get a hold of any side rail that will have us lean onto it. If we are not skating around, we are just walking, completely oblivious that our laces are untied. Our lives flopping around our feet, eventually causing us to stumble all over ourselves, eventually landing on the ground wondering what happened.
But a great many of us like the old man look inward, and figure it out. There comes a point in your turmoil that an epiphany will happen. A light will somehow show up, and you will see that your shoelace is untied. Whether you have almost ruined your life, alienated friends and family, or destroyed relationships with loved ones, there is always time for you to stop and tie your laces. People make mistakes all of the time. And as I've said, if you don't make mistakes then you are not trying to live. If I am fortunate, I will make hundreds of more mistakes in life, and I will have opportunities to correct those mistakes, as well. It is a part of life that we occasionally have loose laces flopping around our feet. Or that we skate around on ice looking for a rail. If you eventually take a look around yourself, you will see 'it" and figure "it" out. "It" meaning who you are, where you are now and where you should be going. You will then have a seat, and tie your laces, and be on your merry way towards what you want. And what you want often depends upon your own honest assessment. Because what you want and need are sometimes entirely different, those two ideas can pull you apart. What you want are usually the things that will make you feel satisfied..What you need are the things that will make you feel happy.
The great wilderness of life is so confusing sometimes that it's easy to get lost within what you want to be doing, what you feel that you should be doing, and what people tell you that you should be doing. It makes you lose yourself, and your purpose, and often is the thing that causes laces to come untied, and lives to become unraveled. Trying to please everyone is the surest way to not please yourself.
But with a little perseverance, we all seem to figure it out. Some will always walk around with their laces untied, but most stop on a bench and tie theirs, and proceed to where they want to go.
We are all that little old man that I saw. Just trying to cross the street in life, and following a desire to go somewhere. People look at you and wonder if you will fall flat on your face, or you will finally discover that your laces are untied. Most are glad when you finally do figure it out. And even happier to know that you can continue onward to go where you need to go.
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