I think by now most people know that my Dad is one of my favourite people in this world. We haven’t always had a perfect relationship, but we’ve overcome a lot as a family together and that has really made me appreciate the times he’s been there for me even more.
If you know my father, you know that he has a very dry wit, so much so sometimes you can’t tell when he’s making a joke. The first time he took me out driving when I was 16, he gave me once piece of advice to help me with my driving skills. As we drove down the busy streets of town, from behind a large beard that always adds a little muffle to his words, he said in a very serious matter of fact tone:
“You see the yellow Line? You see the white line? Just keep it between those lines and you’ll be just fine.”
Now at 16 behind a wheel of a car I had never driven before I didn’t really find that advice very helpful and I’m almost sure I had some retort to it, sorry Dad. Now though, those words to me apply to so much more than driving.
Lately, I’ve been finding a common thread in my own and others views of life and the world. It seems that we all get very uncomfortable and upset when things aren’t going perfect. A normal human reaction I suppose, but with all the bad things that can happen in life, how much energy can we really devote to this? I recently had a friend tell me that I never seem happy with my life.
Am I a happy person? Overall, sure. Do I have days when I want to scream, yell and not get out of bed because life isn’t fair and I wish there was a giant truth monster that forced people to stop lying, hell yes. I’m sure that everyone out there at one point or another has days, weeks or months that just aren’t going as planned. Even though I’m going to try to make an effort to spend less energy on the bumps in the road, I still don’t think I’m doing that bad. My “grumpy” days as I like to call them for me are just the days when I’m drifting towards the white line a little too much and having a good group of people in the car with me as backseat drivers is what brings me back.
So I think we should all take my dad’s 10 year old advice. I know we all might wander a little too far left or right at times, but as long as we all just keep it between the lines I’m sure we’ll make it out just fine.