THE SCENIC ROUTE

I am one who always loves to take the scenic route.

I realize this more and more as the years go by.  Even if it takes me the same time, 15 minutes more or an hour more, I would prefer to be on the scenic route than anywhere else.

This has become super evident over the past year being with a guy that also loves taking the scenic route.  What’s the saying?  “Life is about the process, not the destination.”  I don’t know who said that but it is brilliant.

Last weekend I drove over to Cleveland, Ohio to attend Birthfit Professional seminar (I will share a lot more about Birthfit Professional as time goes by as it will become an incredible tool and offering here at the Cafe of LIFE).  The seminar was Saturday and Sunday 8am-6pm both days.  That is a long weekend and with everything else going on in life right now, it was difficult to commit to that schedule.  I registered over 2 months ago and I am a woman of my word and so 7pm on Friday evening I made the drive.

Friday was a day filled with “life” and I wanted to be on the road by 5pm but that just didn’t happen.  Because I also need to preserve my sleep, I took the fastest and most efficient way to the area and got to a hotel just after 10pm to prepare for a 6:30am wake-up.

Saturday was an incredibly informative and inspiring day with a group of colleagues passionate about helping prenatal and postpartum moms prepare and recover from the most intense athletic event of their lives.  Saturday evening we were released at 6 and I set out to find some dinner.

Some of you know this about me but most of you probably don’t, I love just going for a drive.  In fact, sometime I will say to Mike “Hey babe, let’s go for a drive.” …which he is usually game for and we go and explore.  Another fun fact about me (at least I think it is fun although maybe I shouldn’t be so assuming 🙂 ) is I am passionate about real estate.  I have invested around the local area and I absolutely love transforming spaces.  Mike does too.  As we go for these random drives around, I usually am opening my Zillow app on my phone as we see “for sale” signs posted along our route.  Anywhere.  Anytime.  We drive around just to see what there is to see but also scope real estate wherever we are.  I am a Zillow addict and I love that fact that I have access to see what the homes look like inside.

Saturday night I set out on a drive to find food and before long I realized just how close to Lake Erie I was staying.  I got caught up in a long drive scoping the Cleveland coastline real estate…and then moved inland a street…and then another.  Have you been to Cleveland?  WOW!!!  There were block after block of beautiful homes for miles.  I ran out of daylight but I was astounded.  I had Coffeehouse on my Sirius XM and it was the most relaxed I had been all week.  I would wander around, taking in all the scenery and I could feel my heart filling up.  That may seem like a strange thing to feel while on a drive looking at real estate, but I am okay with being strange.

Sunday came fast and furious and I was back in the seminar.  Sometime during that day I decided I was going to take the coastline home.  Yes I got out of the seminar at 6pm.  Yes I had a 3 hour drive in front of me.  Something inside urged me to take the scenic route and that something was making such a strong declaration about it that if I would have gotten on the toll road and taken the quickest route home, it would have been a battle inside myself the entire way.

So I did.  At 6pm I got into my car and found the most beautiful stretch of homes along the coastline for a large portion of my drive back home.  Looking back, I am so glad I took the scenic route even though it added some time to my late drive home.  When everything was said and done, I had added just a mere 30 extra minutes driving the coastline between Cleveland and Toledo instead of the major highway.  But on top of that, my heart was full.

YOLO “You Only Live Once” and FOMO “Fear Of Missing Out” drive my life and especially these types of decisions.  I am the first to jump off the highway and see if I can find a fun way home just to see what is there.

So many people are in such a rush to get places.  Yes there is a time to be rushed and there is a time to find the quickest route to the destination and get there.  But what about when you are not rushed?  What would the path look like if you got off the heavily beaten most traveled route?  What would you see?  What would you be exposed to?  What would you learn?

Sometimes I take the scenic route and find that there wasn’t a whole lot to see.  Most of the time when I am on the scenic route I find something new and always finished more inspired.  In one of the books I read recently the author suggested “what would happen if you took a different way home?”  Your usual route to work could actually look different…which would feel different…which would help to stir up the monotony of life and maybe help you see things from a different angle.

Life goes by so quickly, I have a hard time even wrapping my head around the fact that we are in May of 2018.  Take the scenic route next time you get a chance.