New Detour

     I moved to Stroudsburg back in '90.  There is a bridge that I would take to the other part of town.  I moved five or so years ago and now I have to take the bridge almost daily.  A while back this bridge won an award...for being one of the worst in the state.  We have been watching it crumble daily.  A sign went up that the bridge was closing.  The newspaper stated that it will take eighteen months to repair.  Weeks ago the sign was amended with a new date.  I breathed a sigh of relief because this main artery to town will change things up quite a bit when it closes.  A new sign and a new date was posted.  Once again we were spared.  But today I went through the brand new traffic light and took the detour.  For the first time since living in this area I was blocked from the bridge.  As I navigated this new detour (which really is just a pain...nothing too crazy) it gave me an insight into life.  Sometimes you have to take a different way to get to the same place.  My Dad has always said, "You're never really lost you are just going a different way".  The road is blocked and the bridge will be torn down.  I will have to go a longer distance on a less convenient road.  I will have to allow for some extra time but I will come out in the same place.  Maybe we are supposed to be at a certain spot on the road of life and detours get in our way...so it might delay things but in the end we wind up just where we are supposed to be.  Now I will use this extra few minutes that it takes to get to town to remind myself that sometimes you have to go around the thing that blocks you to get to where you need to be.  It will take some deconstructing and some rebuilding but in the end the growth and change makes for a safer ride and some added character.