“Give me 5
seconds and I will tell you everything I know!” my Dad often randomly proclaimed
with a grin. Surprised, everyone would
stop and stare. A brief moment of silence would elapse, a
giggle would escape, and then life would continue.
In all the years my Dad proclaimed this, he
never once elaborated. He moved through
life confident seeming to know all and in complete control of his destiny. One day he suffered a stroke. It was as if God mocked “So, you think you
know it all?” He learned only one knows
all and sadly it wasn’t him.
"You can't connect the dots looking
forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that
the dots will somehow connect in your future."
If you think
about it, this makes a ton of sense.
You can’t connect dots looking forward because no one can really predict
the future because it has yet to be written.
However, you can mull over past events in your life and connect the dots
of those various events and gain the understanding of how you ended up where
you are today.
I believe that
our lives are mapped out for us before we are even born. Of course we make choices along the way that
either slows that ultimate destiny or hastens it. Still, while we may not understand why things
happen as they do, we tend to only understand in hindsight and then the lessons
are learned and wisdom is gained.
I always loved
dot-to-dot puzzles when I was a kid. I
loved connecting the dots and watching how the big picture appeared as if by
magic. Life is an awful lot like that. You have to simply trust that things will
work out as they are meant too. For those
of us that believe in God, we believe only he knows how the big picture appears
in the end, for he often knows us better than we know ourselves. For me, I believe that in the big scheme of
things life is a dance and you learn as you go.
Have you ever had a date with destiny? Sixteen years ago I was wishing my date with destiny would hurry up and arrive. Truthfully, I was sick of waiting. I decided at that point in my life to visit a local tarot card reader just for $hits and giggles to see if she had any clue about which direction my life was going to take. I wanted to find someone to spend my forever with. I wanted to get married and have kids. I didn’t want anything out of the ordinary. It is not like I wanted to fly to the moon or something equally preposterous. I just wanted to be normal. I was 28 years old and sick and tired of waiting for Mr. Wonderful to come along. I was at the end of my rope.
The tarot card reader told me that a man was going to come into my life and that he was going to become a very important part of it. He held the key to my destiny and I would meet him soon. With little hope of actually happening on this mystery man I decided to take matters into my own hands and to pay adating serviceto hook me up with a man. With good faith, I passed out 500.00 and waited for Mr. Right to come along. I knew that if he didn’t in this last ditch effort, then I was done. I would happily surround myself with cats and become a hermit living out the rest of my days on top of a hill somewhere. I had it all planned out. That was my back up plan. I was tired of screwing around and was ready for destiny to step in. It was time to $hit or get off the pot.
Matchmaker sent me a lot of duds. There was one guy I met at a local Mexican restaurant that I knew as soon as I laid eyes on him that there was no way in hell he was the one. I figured he could buy me dinner regardless and made sure I came off just as wild as I possibly could. He was a CPA and looked it. Needless to say, it was pretty obvious he never wanted to see me again and the feeling was mutual. By the time I got the little piece of paper telling me the next man I was to meet would be a truck mechanic I had just about had it. My views had become jaundiced. By that point I was certain that anyone I would meet through the dating service was going to be a nightmare. I felt drawn to his name and the piece of paper in spite of my misgivings considering my luck thus far.
When he finally called me, we hit it off like a house on fire. We talked on the phone all night long. By then, he wanted to meet me. I was afraid. I was afraid that if he was that nice of a guy, he probably would have been scary as hell to look at. I didn’t want to rush into it after all my other disappointments. There had to be something wrong with him, so I put him off. After he hung up saying he was going riding on his 4 wheeler, I had almost an instantaneous change of heart. I had to meet him!! I felt he was my destiny. I waited all day and called him again that night. It was after 9, but I was desperate to meet him and he agreed to come over immediately to see me.
As soon as I opened the door and saw him, I knew he was my destiny. He must have felt the same because within 3 months we were engaged and the rest is history. He has been there to see me through the good, the bad, and life’s ups and downs. He was my destiny then, and now two kids, and 16 years later he is still my destiny and always will be until next time when I give you another glimpse into the life of a trucker’s wife.
