One of the very basic things you learn first in driver's training is putting the car in reverse. There wouldn't be much point in learning to drive if you could only go forward. You could never go in a driveway, you could never park at a store or a school or a doctor's office. You could never go back and get that photo you so clearly saw, just a few seconds ago. We never think of reverse as a negative. It is a good thing that saves us, many a time.
So why when we apply it to life, do we whine and complain about taking a few steps backward? Why is it always, always perceived as a negative? Why are we unable to see the potential goodness and necessity or going in reverse? One dimensional, is that how we really want to live?
It has taken me many years of practice to even get a glimpse of it now. To understand that going in reverse may be the very best thing I can do. Going in reverse is not running away or having to do without - just like when you drive - it may be the very thing that saves your life or at the very least, gives you another chance.
When life goes in reverse, my default is a second of panic and it may always be but I would love to see it more often for what I truly think it is... just another tool in this journey and a vital and important one at that...
