By Joe Mazzella
I was lost in the city. My nerves were stressed. My muscles were tense. My heart was pounding. My hands gripped the steering wheel of my car as I circled the same city block for the tenth time. I grew up in the country and never had much experience driving in the city but I needed to pick up my daughter so here I was with my three children in the car trying my best to find the exit back to the interstate. This was long before G.P.S. and my handwritten directions seemed to be wrong. It didn’t help that the experienced city drivers were going around me with just inches to spare and honking their horns at me as I inched my way back to the turnoff again. Finally, in desperation I muttered a prayer under my breath: “Please, God. I want to go home. Help us find our way safely there!”
At that moment I saw it, the tiny one lane exit that led to the interstate again. At the last second I pulled into the right lane and got us all headed up the ramp. The interstate traffic out of the city at that time of the day was even worse than the traffic in the city. It was bumper to bumper at 70 miles per hour. Finally, though, the traffic started to thin out and I could relax at the wheel. I took in the beauty of the mountains covered in forests of green. I smiled at the sun shining down on them, giving them a golden glow and I thanked God for getting me out of the city and on the way back home again. At last we turned off the four lane highway onto the winding two lane road that would take us the last 16 miles home. I turned on the radio and laughed with joy when I heard the song that was playing: “Take Me Home, Country Roads.”
In this life we will all take many paths and travel many places. But in the end all roads lead us home again. Travel then with a light and loving heart. And know that in the end we all will return Home again, to Love, to God, and to all those we hold dear.
