LETTING GO CAN GET YOU BACK ON TRACK By Katie Pinke | Forum News Service
Photo by Elizabeth Pinke
I
n a previous career chapter, I traveled across the U.S. for client work, which required a 92-mile commute to or from the airport. I drove early, late and in all weather conditions to avoid additional nights away from my kids and husband. While I’ve seen the majestic beauty of the vast prairie at all hours of the day and night, I’ve also experienced the ugliness of prairie storms while navigating two-lane roads. Even though the calendar says autumn, I’m stuck in a winter blizzard funk. I debated skipping this difficult topic and sharing pretty images from soybean harvest instead. After all, there are few things I enjoy more than riding in the combine with my dad. But then I wondered, does anyone else feel like they’re in a difficult season? For the past 10 months, through numerous transitions and changes, I’ve felt like I’m driving on a dark road in whiteout conditions. You know — the kind of blizzard that Page 30 – November 2020 – West Central Tribune
requires a white-knuckle grip on the wheel and your eyes fixed to the road to make sure you stay the course as the wind tosses you around and you plow through snowdrifts. Can you relate to feeling like your life is stuck in blizzard conditions? Maybe it’s due to the weariness from COVID-19 and impacts of financial struggles, a health diagnosis or condition, parenting through a pandemic, strained relationships, isolation, politics, elections or a host of other challenges left unnamed, but you face them. I desperately want to get to the other side of this stuckin-a-blizzard feeling and, as a wooden sign in my living room reads: “Autumn shows us how beautiful it is to let things go.” Many times on those past lonely, treacherous drives, I questioned if I had made the right decision to drive home. I let worry consume me. With experience, I learned to talk to God on my drives. I knew the roads.
