Dr. Seuss exclaimed one sage day in late January 1990 that we would indeed go places. In his very last book Oh the Places You’ll Go!, he promised we would sometimes have it easy. But, evidently, we would also go through dark times too.

Oh the twists and turns that life’s journey presents us! Without a roadmap. With nary a navigation system. With no instructions at all. We intend and pray and hope that our dreams will come true as we slog our way through the briars and bushes and overgrown vegetation. We work hard, striving for those elusive goals glimmering like heat on an Oklahoma highway, just out of reach, intangible and shimmery.

Then one decision leads to another, leading to another and another. And pretty soon that childhood dream wanders away like a lost toddler at the mall. Practical considerations take over. The vivacious youth fades to mid-life. And one day we awaken having forgotten that we had ever dreamed at all.

But opportunity knocks most profoundly when the bend in the road turns most severely. It catches us off-guard as we collect ourselves from the unexpected switch in directions. An unorchestrated medley of choice and chance emerges.

These are the gifts that life most richly bestows upon us. We may not get that job, promotion, house, car, pet, relationship or reaction we are seeking and suddenly the Universe is our most fickle friend. But well beneath the twisted path lies a deeper nugget of goodness. It is the sandpaper, softening our edges of will and want. And with each wallop of Fate we have the chance to unearth another part of ourselves hovering just beneath the surface of things.

The journey is fraught with roller-coaster madness. And when we bring along the strong-hearted troops who have us hold on no matter how scared we may get, we race toward the next hurdle even mightier than before. Those friends who say, “You are worth it!” are the sentries who believe more than they doubt. They know with all their heart that you will make it to the finish line, cheering you toward it when you lose your way.

I bow to those spirits who have traveled this road before me, enduring the challenges the road provides, bumps, bruises, broken glass and all.