Bless the Broken Road

I've been asked why I've called this journal "Thoughts From Along the Broken Road". If you know me, you probably know that music, more specifically song lyrics, can really strike a chord with me. Sometimes it's a line or 2...or even just the basis for a song that I find some personal meaning in. Other times, it's the whole song beginning to end. But for me to truly love a song the words must speak directly to me, feel like someone climbed inside my head & came out holding my thoughts placed neatly into song form.

I've always said things happen for a reason that may not immediately be clear. But no matter what moments have taken place in my life--and like everyone I have some worth remembering & others I wish I could forget but know I never will--I know that I would not be where I am or the person that I am if even one thing was altered. This is a recurring theme in the performing arts. Who hasn't seen "It's a Wonderful Life" where George Bailey learns just how much one life can truly effect the whole world in ways that weren't at first obvious. And maybe you've heard Garth Brooks sing "The Dance": And now I'm glad I didn't know the way it all would end, the way it all would go. Our lives are better left to chance. I could have missed the pain but I'd of had to miss the dance...

Well, one night I heard a song on one of the multitudes of music award shows playing on the tv in the other room as I half-listened from my seat here in front of the computer. I hardly paid attention at first but something drew me in and before I knew it, I was hearing words that tapped right into my soul:

I set out on a narrow way many years ago
Hoping I would find true love along the broken road
But I got lost a time or two
Wiped my brow and kept pushing through
I couldn't see how every sign pointed straight to you
Every long lost dream led me to where you are
Others who broke my heart, they were like northern stars
Pointing me on my way into your loving arms
This much I know is true
That God blessed the broken road
That led me straight to you
("Bless the Broken Road", Rascal Flatts)

There it was. Some song writer somewhere had captured my philosophy on why things happen the way they do, how we can appear to get so far off course from where we wanted to be, yet somehow wake up one day & find that we've actually reached our destination, just by an alternate route. Sometimes I think I know who my broken road has led me to & other times I wonder but I know that in the end the destination will be clear & those loving arms will be waiting for me, asking "what took you so long to get here?" I have to keep believing that & in the mean time, these are my thoughts as I travel along to a destination unknown that I know will feel like coming home.