I talk often about always being on the path but I don't mention the huge zigs and zags the path takes. As we look back at how we got here, there are seminal moments when direction was changed by a decision or something that happened around us.
There are memorable occasions in all of our lives we can point to that suddenly changed everything. My grandfather as a young man was an outstanding citizen of the farm country of southern Minnesota. He inspected milk and dairy farms. He dated a woman and it wasn't quite clear where they were going in their relationship. That is until she had a date with one of his rivals and it appeared as if something might be developing. The date occurred one night. The next morning she was walking down the main street of the tiny town of Racine (population 189) when my grandfather drove up in his Model T. He looked at her and said, "Get in! We're going to go get married!" In that very moment, her life changed drastically. Our family reunions from the start of that relationship have as many as 130 people attending - all impacted by one morning 'getting married' decision.
Another occurred when I was in college and I had a date with a young woman. I didn't know her very well but we ended up spending the night talking about anything and everything. She then went home to Napa for the weekend. When she came back she had been offered a two-year teaching contract in Melbourne, Australia. We talked some more and then she said, "Why don't you come with me?" I had a great state job and was living a comfortable life but I did not hesitate - I said yes. My dad later asked me why I would do something as radical as go to Australia with someone I barely knew? I told him it was because I had never been to Australia. I had adventures, ended up marrying the woman, and it impacted almost ten years of my life.
Finally I was very very active in my church. I was at seminary becoming an interfaith minister. I had vowed over a period of twenty years to all the people I worked with that I would never get married again. Then along came a woman who one day stopped me in fellowship hall after church and wanted to know why some woman had not 'snatched me right up.' In December of 2005 she asked me out on a date by email and some 18 years later my world has changed in the most amazing ways.
These are the seminal moments in our lives that we never see coming. But we must be ready for them. When they arrive they will flash across the screen of our life and it is our choice to jump into adventure or stay where we are. I have always said that we will change when the rewards of making changes are bigger than the rewards of staying where we are at. Stop and think about your seminal moments. Know that until you leave the planet there will be more of them. Take a chance because there is another one coming down the line.
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