Detours

Have you ever taken a detour in life?

I was on the way in to the office this morning and missed my exit. I found myself needing to cross four lanes of rush hour traffic with less than a quarter mile between me and my exit. Needless to say, I ended up taking a detour.

There are times in life when detours help us avoid danger, other times, they catapult us into just the right position to help someone else along the way. Detours always bring a fresh new perspective to our otherwise well traveled routes in life. We see things differently when we take a detour. Adrenaline seems to ignite our senses and we absorb the new and novel.

Most of the time, we think of detours as unintentional. Some unforeseen circumstance alters our course or changes our direction, but detours can also be intentional. We have the ability to choose our direction, and we can deviate from our intended course in life as often as there are crossroads. We should consider more fully the benefits of intentional detours, side trips in life if you will, and experience them more often for the opportunity to see things afresh and anew, and interact with people that we might otherwise never come in contact with.

With detours comes perspective, something we could all use a little more of.