My husband and I are spending time in the Seattle area, house-sitting for a friend until the end of September. Today I began the drive from Boulder to Seattle, through Wyoming and Montana. It rained most of the morning, but by early afternoon, the scenery was simply spectacular. The colors seemed so alive and vivid, the landscape fresh and new. One particular field of sunflowers simply took my breath away.

I’d driven for more than 700 miles when I started to pay attention to the ribbon of highway in front of me.  The road looked just like the ribbon candy that my grandmother used to have in a dish on her coffee table. It was just one ripple after the next, continuing into the distance. Just like I have done so many times before, I picked a spot in the distance, several ripples away, and tried to determine how far it was from my location to that point. Five miles? Ten miles? More? I decided that I would focus on the spot until I reached it and clock the mileage. I’ve done this so many times on long drives before, or should I say that I’ve tried to do this.

The problem is, I can’t remember one time when I actually remembered to maintain my focus that long. It’s always seems that a half hour passes and I remember, “Oh yeah, I was looking for that spot… now where was that”, when I’m long past that point. I’m not sure I’ve EVER remembered and actually clocked it; in the many times I’ve attempted to do this. Something always takes my concentration away.

Today I was determined. I looked at the spot in the distance and thought of it as one of my goals. I thought of this experience as a metaphor for life- knowing that life always brings interesting things to us to take our focus from our goal. I reaffirmed my commitment to achieving this goal and not forgetting or losing focus. I looked at my odometer and guessed the spot was at least 10-15 miles away. Certainly I can hold my concentration for that long!

It was almost like a meditation in that I was training my mind to stay focused on the goal at the end. Just like in life, if we stay focused on the goal and not the things that appear, we’re so much more successful.  I was quite proud of myself, going 80 mph for more than 5 minutes and still maintaining my focus on the spot in the distance. I was even saying my goal out loud, talking to myself to reinforce where I was going.

And just as I was beginning to get cocky, wham! I drove into a swarm of flying bugs. Splat, splat, splat all over my windshield. At first I thought it was big raindrops, then I realized that it was yellow bugs! Yuck! It went on for at least a minute or two but the bugs were constant. I felt badly about smashing them but there was no alternative. They were everywhere. I had to turn on the windshield wipers to be able to see where I was going. I was so grateful that I wasn’t on a motorcycle.

And just that quickly, a hilltop, then a mountain came and went and about 20 minutes later I realized I’d gone right past my focus point- without noticing it or remembering it at all. Once again, I was distracted with other things, in this case bugs, and drove right past it. I never did figure out how far those two points were from one another.

The experience made me think of how many times we do the same thing in life. We’ll choose a goal that we want and 6 months later we wonder what happened to that path. We’re so caught up in another situation that just showed up, that we barely remember what it was we were looking for. My guess is that the yellow bugs of life sideswipe us all.  Perhaps your bugs are bills, getting fired from that job, illness, or whatever. Regardless, if we let the bugs take our focus off of the goal, who knows where we’ll end up. Try to watch for the bugs in your life today and stay focused on what you want not just what shows up.

(Note: Just as I was posting this I noticed a glitch in our site ranking. I immediately went into fix it/ panic mode, for only a few seconds. Then, I realized it for what it is- a bug. Just a yellow bug. Instead of changing my focus, I went back to be goal and retained my focus on the end goal. There will always be bugs, but I know I get to choose if I chase them or not!)

Please feel free to post comments or write to me at gail@inspiremetoday.com and share your experience.

About two weeks ago we came sailing to the British Virgin Islands, to relax, play, enjoy being together, brainstorm InspireMeToday.com, and to give me time to percolate some ideas I’ve had, including writing a new book.

Well, you know me, and know that I believe a lot of things in life are metaphors for your life. After this sailing trip, I think life is a lot like bananas. Let me explain. On our first day here, the 28th of July, I provisioned the boat from Bobby’s, the local grocery store in downtown Road Town, Tortola. I bought a stalk of bananas as I love to eat them for breakfast each morning. All of the bananas in the store were bright green, so I purchased what they had- green bananas.

I think I now understand why bananas must be picked this green to arrive to our stores in the US and still be just a little bit green when we purchase them thousands of miles away. But, I’ve never seen bananas this green. It’s been more then 10 days now and these bananas are still like rocks. I’ve been a really good babysitter- each day I take them in from the afternoon rain showers, and then bring them back out into the sun when I’m sure the squall has passed. I thought they liked the sun! It can turn my skin dark in a day but it can’t change a banana in 10 days? No matter what I do, they have no intention of turning yellow, or at least not in my lifetime. I think watching grass grow would be more exciting than watching these bananas get ripe.

I’ve had all kinds of ideas on how to make a green banana ripe, as I want to eat these NOW! Actually, I’ve wanted to eat them for the past week. But no, they still sit here rock hard and bright green. Some days I wonder if they’re really bananas, and not the plastic fruit from some tacky fruit bowl centerpiece. I even had the idea of nuking them in the microwave to ripen them- if I had a microwave on the boat, which I don’t. Putting them in a brown bag doesn’t seem to work either. I’m almost out of ideas.

How often do you have an idea, a project or a plan that you want to implement NOW but no matter what you do, things just don’t line up for you? Green bananas. There’s something to be said for all things in perfect timing. You just can’t fight Nature. Bananas will ripen when they’re ready, just as my idea will ripen when it too is ready. Sometimes I get impatient and too hard on myself. It’s the simple experiences in life that gently teach me that I’m not always in control, no matter how real the illusion looks to me. Sometimes I do have to be patient whether I like it or not.

When you look at Nature, in my experience, the fruit is at its sweetest point and always falls from the tree when it’s ripe. But yet many times, metaphorically, we go get a really big ladder, drag it to the tree, precariously perch our rickety ladder against a limb and climb out hoping that the fruit will be ripe. Worse yet, sometimes we pick it when it’s still sour, hard or in the case of my bananas, green. Life is so much easier when we allow it to unfold without our trying to force things or make them ripe before their time.

So, I’ll put my stalk of bananas in the sun, go make a rum punch, and enjoy the breeze under a palm tree on the beach. The bananas will get ripe when they choose to do so. And in the meantime I’m going to relax and know that all things are unfolding and happening in my life with the exact perfect timing. I’ll leave the bananas as a present for the next person who charters the boat, and perhaps I’ll leave some of the stress I brought along with me here too.

Note: (written with a smile) I wrote the above blog on August 8th. Yesterday morning, August 9th, as we’re packing to leave the boat, I noticed a bright yellow banana that actually had some brown spots, just hanging out with the rest of the green ones. It was as if the banana was saying, “Now, aren’t you glad you waited?”. The last thing I did as I left the boat was eat that banana. I think I enjoyed it more than I ever have any banana before. I guess some things are worth waiting for. Yum!