L is for lost

(This post is part of the 2013 Blogging From A to Z April Challenge. Learn more about the Challenge HERE.)

I've been lost before. Not in the physical sense. That has happened rarely in my life. But in the emotional sense. In the spiritual sense. In the life sense. Yes, I've had that happen more often than I'm comfortable admitting.

The situation is always the same. I think I know where I'm going and what I'm doing, and then something unexpected happens. It's never a happy something. And it jars me, forces my head up, and I look around and realize I'm lost. Somehow my decisions led me to an unknown place, and I'm confronting choices I don't want to choose. Or -- and this is more common -- I find I have no choices at all. I have to follow a path that's only going to end badly. It's like being in a slow train wreck, and you can't jump off or stop the train or save yourself. All you can do is wait for the collusion.

Of course, I've lived long enough to know that sometimes the wreck doesn't happen. We can't control events, and the train can veer off or stop. You're saved. It happens.

If you're lost, then I can give you this advice: Do your best to get found. Keep hope. Just as you didn't expect the events that led to being lost, events can happen to save you.

And if not, well ... stay tough. Survive. Learn. Grow. Get up and go on. That's all you can do.