By Becki Balok 

My office overlooks a parking lot and with an eagle-eye view I watch drivers turn left when the open spaces are on the right. I'd like to holler -- "two lanes over and 5 spots up" -- directing them to the open spots I clearly see from my vantage point seven stories up. But they wouldn't hear and my office mates would think me insane.

Without any help from me, they plod along, and they always find a place to park. It may be far from the entrance but they always find a spot.

It occurs to me that our lives are sometimes like a parking lot. We always want a spot up close to the door, but usually end up in the back forty. Often we go off willy-nilly in one particular direction, and finding nothing open, we plod off on a different path. We often turn right, when we should go left. Sometimes we park in spots that are very far from our desires and our destiny. Sometimes we get a flat. Sometimes we get dumped on. Sometimes we need our battery re-charged. Sometimes we just need to release the emergency brake to move forward.

We experience the parking lot of life whenever we try to get someplace and we feel blocked. It is that space in our lives where we cannot see the big picture and we focus only on what is directly in front of us. Without an eagle-eye view, every setback we experience seems like the end. Every challenge we face holds us back. Every closed opportunity smacks of loss and limitation.

If only we could truly see the big picture of our lives in every moment. If only we could trust that there is a space open for us "two lanes over and 5 spots up". If only we could see with an eagle-eye that every set-back gives us a chance to re-group, to learn more. Every challenge helps us grow stronger by considering other choices. Every closed opportunity, a precursor to something better.

The parking lot of life is not a bad place, nor a place to be avoided -- it is a place we may need to experience to put the wind back in our sails, to put the zest back in our step. Searching for the right spot, the right turn, the right direction may be just what we need to do, right now.

In the parking lot of life -- the blocks, setbacks, closures you bump into only serve to re-direct you -- there is a spot just for you…it's what life is all about.

© Becki Balok, June 11, 2000