Change is like a roundabout!
The Arc de Triomphe in Paris is the queen of roundabouts with something like a dozen streets radiating from her hub out into the rest of the city.
My sister and I were rather in awe of it (no line markings!) when we visited it in Paris.
The poor misunderstood roundabouts, long beloved by motorists in France (with 30,000) and Britain (with 22,000), are still not universally appreciated by us Americans. This is despite the fact that with a roundabout we don’t have to stop and be at the mercy of a traffic light. And because we keep moving, we reduce traffic backups, save money on gas and cutback on pollution. And, we can’t really get lost. If we miss our turnoff, we can simply circle back.
And, just like in life, we are moving forward, but not often “straight ahead.” Because a roundabout isn’t a straightaway. There is a turning. A shift of direction.
And sometimes, we can find ourselves going around and around and around…moving, surely, but not moving any closer to our desired destination.
Are YOU in a Roundabout of Change?
Do you have questions about what you are now called to do? Do you think maybe you should be doing what you’re doing, but doing it differently? Do you want to change what you are doing but don’t quite see the way forward?
Fortunately, just like this new roundabout here in Walla Walla, each of us is likely handling a simple life compared to those who traverse the one in Paris! We have lane markers. We drive more cautiously than those taxi drivers in Paris.
We know that life is change, and even if we feel like we are going in circles we can keep moving. We are always experiencing “interchanges” with choices to be made, and it is a blessing to know that as long as we keep moving we have options!
The road we came in on isn’t the road that we may be leaving on. We aren’t on a straightaway. There is a turning. A shift of direction.
One might even say a discernment, refinement, or a distillation—if one were a word nerd!
4 Comments
Awesome analogy, Pat. And, oh boy, I do remember the ‘trip’ around that roundabout in Paris! Life and driving: keep your eyes open, watch the road and other travelers, keep moving even if slowly, allow yourself to go around again when necessary to get your bearings. Yep. Good analogy.
Great analogy!
Awesome analogy, Pat!
This brings back memories of my time living in Venezuela (in the 80’s). My first experience with a rotonda. Several times I got off too soon or too late and had to get back on.
Same thing in my life, having to choose and choose again. We don’t have to settle for just whatever. Life is always ready to give us a different experience when we are persistent.