Trust the Fog

This one is for my “PENG YOU”, Eng, here in CA…you know who  you are…

            This morning, the thrilling married the sublime. I walked out of the house into dense fog. It’s one of those firsts for me. I couldn’t even see the neighbor’s house, nor the van that’s usually parked across the street.  I never had it this thick on the road by myself in my whole life! I was terrified, and thrilled at the same time.  I turned the headlights on, and off I drove.

           I don’t now where to begin describing how it was for me.  I couldn’t see anything except for about 5 feet of translucent view in front, and some faint flicker of traffic lights up ahead. I didn’t know where to stop, or if I should stop for pedestrians or cars.  All I knew was I had to keep on driving…trust my instincts and react based on experience, and tackle the road up ahead when I get there. Things were coming into view five feet at a time. True enough, I saw stoplights turning red, I saw figures wanting to cross, I saw headlights coming up on corners…appearing to me one at a time as I rolled by.  And I was able to deal with them.

            It occurred to me.  Isn’t this how life is sometimes? It’s not pure sunbeams and clear skies.  There are times when we have to deal with the fog not knowing where we are nor where we are heading. We just have to live through it, one day at a time, trust our instincts, apply learnings from past experiences, make the most out of it and just keep on doing what we do best. And if we nurture enough faith in our hearts, we keep going.  And we always find out that it always brings us somewhere anyway. Then life goes on.

            We have to trust the fog.  We have to trust what we see and not see five feet or even less ahead of us.  While it is important to see as far ahead as we can, there are times when we can’t and we just have to live with what is right under our nose, one step at a time.  Besides, it is at this time when we are within the shortest touching distance to God.  It is the time when we get to hold his hand for guidance and protection like a little child and we let him take us to where we are meant to be.  And we always end up being able to handle it.  It is the time when we hop into the passenger seat and let God take the wheel, at last.

            After all, as my co-worker has put it today, “It felt like this morning's drive was a walk in the clouds.”  Surely!