Detours

A poem

Photo by Alexey Taktarov on Unsplash

It’s easy to get upset,
and frustrated
when the traffic
starts
and the train is
late
and the plane is
delayed.

It’s easy to want to
scream,
and yell,
and cry
when of our best-laid plans
somehow go awry.

It’s easy to let
the idea of what was
supposed to be,
and supposed to happen,
stop us
from paying attention
to what is
and what surrounds us
right here
and now.

For sometimes,
detours lead can lead us
to the greatest gifts
in life —
like the blind date that
turns into
a thirty-year marriage
and the years of
infertility
that bring you
he chubbiest baby,
and the millions of
rejection letters
that brought you to
that one agent
who took a leap
on your book
and your show
and your play,
and you.

And then there are
the detours
that lead us to
the moments
that don’t present themselves
as a milestone,
or make their way into
a photo album,
but instead,
become etched into
your soul
and part of
the very fiber of your being.

Sometimes we forget,
there’s blessings to be found
in those moments,
too.