Time to think!

One of the benefits of traveling alone like this in vast spaces is that you get a chance to do a lot of thinking. There are literally hours between fuel stops and sparse traffic on most of the two lane roads I traveled. It is amazing how sometimes you will see something that just fits into your thought process like a piece to a puzzle. I have no doubt that this is divine intervention. Here I was riding along this lonely road in South Dakota and thinking about my life and how several times now I have had to change careers. The first being when the school district I taught in went through declining enrollment and I lost my teaching job. A new opportunity sprung up from virtually no where and I ended up in Human Resources at Harleysville Insurance. Heck, I didn't even know how to spell personnel, which is what HR was called in those days, let alone know what it involved. I quickly fell in love with my new profession though and life went on. Then when senior management at Harleysville changed, I found myself seeking a new opportunity. Commerce Bank came along and allowed me to continue to do what I loved, plus introduced me to people that have become some of the closest and genuine friends anyone could ever hope for. Then, most recently when TD purchased Commerce and the working environment became so terribly frustrating for me, I moved into a new phase of my life with a lot of uncertainty. Should I retire, would I be happy, would I miss the challenges of the HR profession etc? Each time this has happened in my life a new chapter has unfolded and new opportunities developed. So, here I was cruising down a lonely stretch of two lane and all of a sudden this flower was growing in a crack in the pavement. Not just any crack, but one that was sealed with tar to keep all water and one would think "life" out. For some reason, it just hit me that it was God's way of saying to me that a new chapter of my life would blossom. I have been struggling to know what that will be, and I still do not know, but all of a sudden I felt at peace. No matter what it is, I will be OK and as one door closses another will open and a future will bloom in some way. I initially drove on down the road for about 10 miles with all these thoughts spinning in my head until I realized that I needed to go back and take this picture. We have all seen plants grow in the most unlikely places.. but this one ranks up there in my book as one of the most amazing. This seed fell in the most inhospitable place imaginable, and look what resulted. What were the odds?