Lost in Paradise...I think

A while back I saw a commercial for a famous designer that told her story in about thirty seconds. Towards the end of the commercial, the designer said, “life is not about finding yourself; it’s about creating yourself.” I thought that was pretty cool.

My wife and I just returned from celebrating our two year anniversary in San Diego. San Diego is one of those cities you can’t help but fall in love with; or at least enjoy your time there. It has everything you could want in a city except a super hero. We like to explore the city and usually take with us our trusted GPS. This year though, I decided to forgo the GPS, and instead, rely on intuition. When it comes to a sense of direction, this is usually not a good bet for me. I didn’t care though. It was time for me to turn over a new leaf, and plus, I had lost the power connector for our GPS.

Our journey took us all over SD. One day we headed over to La Jolla. This is one of the few places I’ve been to where the views are literally breathtaking. Every ocean themed postcard should come from here. Since we didn’t have our GPS we just drove in one direction and turned when we felt like it. There were even a few times we relied on locals to point us in the right direction. It actually felt weird asking for directions, I mean, who does that anymore? (Probably someone who doesn’t have a GPS system.) My normal paranoid self wasn’t overly flustered at the prospect of not knowing where I was going. I just drove, and did a bunch of U-turns.

It sounds odd, but I was actually enjoying the kind-of-lost-though-I’m-not-entirely-sure way of exploring San Diego. There were many unexpected discoveries like where I could find copious amounts of graffiti, and a prison-like basketball court including chain nets and pit bulls. Not to mention the many new hang-out spots and lovely beaches to kick back at. It was a journey to say the least.

I have to remind myself quite frequently that I am a sojourner. There is no set course for daily living. I am not a programmable machine—and I don’t want to live that way. I want adventure. I want to get lost and find my way. Instead of always having the right answer, I want to discover it and to ask others for help. I am not bound by what others may say or do, just as I am not eternally linked to my GPS. Part of the joy is finding our way, even when we feel lost, and realizing we don’t have to know the end destination. After all, we are just passing through.