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Puppets or Partners
or What I Did On My Summer Vacation

We can chose to live out our lives as passive puppets of fate or as active partners in our destiny. Destiny will lead you to the turning points in your life, but then it’s up to you take those moments and do something with them.

The Vacation
Three years long had passed since taking what I'd call a “don’t-think-about-work,” out-of-town vacation. Sure, I’d been on a few business/pleasure trips. However, whenever work and/or business is involved, it’s just not the same. At the time I was in severe need of a real, total, and complete break from the action of everyday life. As such... I was bound and determined to spend the majority of my vacation mindlessly vegetating. So, while packing my bags, I made a mental deal with myself.

In this deal... part of taking a real, total, and complete break meant leaving behind any and/or all of my normal “pleasure reading."

It's important to know that I have an extremely distorted idea of “pleasure reading.” It's one that has little or nothing to do with what the average normal person on our planet considers to be "pleasure reading." It generally consists of Jungian psychoanalytic books, dry academic reading about some facet of the European Renaissance, technically oriented astrology books, and/or books written by an ancient philosopher (or books written about an ancient philosopher). When on a typical reading binge, generous assortments of these dry-as-dust books are piled up beside my bed and crying out for a little TLC.

Enough said about that...

In retrospect, my attitude on the matter should have put me on notice that I was about to learn something significant. It didn't. However, I would soon discover that the universe had an altogether different agenda in mind. Life is full of little "refresher" courses about the "simple" things. The farther I travel down the road of life, the better I understand that there are certain "simple" things that you "think" you know that you don't "know." The problem is that we sometimes have to empty ourselves and get quiet enough to hear the simple messages and wisdom spoken by that still, small voice inside.

I’m Leaving On a Jet Plane
The first leg of my escape into vegetative oblivion consisted of a Saturday two hour passenger jet ride from Nashville, TN to Austin, TX. During the flight I pulled out the one book I'd brought along. Hey! I'm not perfect. Besides, it was [technically speaking] light reading in that it was a novel. Granted the book was a historical novel about the French Renaissance. Okay, sue me. My choice of novels still wasn’t exactly "getting with the program," but reading a novel (any novel) seemed to be a small step in the right direction.

Before long, I came across an interesting passage. In this passage, one of the main characters said something to the effect that:

It’s not that I’d never heard this "simple" message before. I have, and you have. However, for some strange reason it literally leapt out at me from the pages of that book.

Third Time Is Charm
After switching planes in Austin, TX... and playing it safe, I began thumbing through the innocuous pages of an airline magazine. Suddenly and unexpectedly, there the message was again. This time the message was served up in one of those typical "bread and butter" motivational articles. Yep. It was there and staring me in the face. Destiny will lead you to the turning points in your life, but then it’s up to you take those moments and do something with them. I made a mental note of it, thinking this to be a wee bit odd.

We all know that "third time is charm." To ensure that I was paying attention... later that night, the message was repeated for a third time. Relaxing on a couch, winding down from my long day of exhausting travel, I was innocently watching a rather lighthearted "made for TV" movie on the boob tube. Suddenly, there it was again. Destiny will lead you to the turning points in your life, but then it’s up to you take those moments and do something with them. I would discover, over the course of my vacation, that this simple enough message was not going to leave me alone.

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