But I Digress

I was delighted to read the phrase from a Ray McLain email "But I digress from the movie" because it conjured up images of those little accidentally miracles. The twist and turns of life not missed. I wasn't a few seconds too early or too late, but spot on. Digressions; the flow of roads, or the flow of conversion. or thoughts flowing out like the veins in a hand. Ever flowing out.

A digression, a bump in the road, a little miracle occurs, a diversion. You are headed in one direction and wind up in another due to unforeseeable circumstances, and you arrive exactly where you should be. The obstacle that turns out to be a blessing.

My literal bump was becoming pregnant with Ian when I thought I was too old, too busy, too tired, had too many yours mine and ours children. My life was too complicated -- twenty-eight years later he continues to bless me every day.

And speaking of baby blessings, what if Stephanie and Roger had a baby seven years ago or off in the future? I wouldn't have Connor telling me not to kiss him because my lips were hurting him. Darn chapped lips.

But I digress, maybe those are begats not digressions.

Did you ever head to a lake or a restaurant and arrive at the un-planned for?

I should have been working, but I kept peeking to try to see what this woman was reading, she always seemed to have interesting titles. That little continued digression arrived me at a book club that is thirteen years strong.

I have learned to trust and love a digression, even bad ones become good stories, nostalgic moments, precious memories.

Who hasn't been stopped in their tracts by the antics of a child? The hug of a loved one? The unexpected appearance of an old friend while going to Walmart to buy, I don't know, soap or car oil.

You pull over to pee at a roadside rest stop and wind up talking to the Canadians for four hours, sharing a picnic, a life.

I wrote a good job requirement list once of; no phones, no computers, no sales and no uniforms, hey we are all naive sometimes, and wound up at Eddie Bauer with phones, computers, sales AND a whole lot of what I needed to live life, to transition to Seattle, to pay rent, buy Ian some Abercrombie jeans and muddle around and discover the Pacific Northwest which I love beyond reason.

And one time Julia and I spent five days digressing, pre Google, over King Arthur, Arthurian Legends, Merlin, magic, roadside England, flipping from books to dictionary, to encyclopedia to atlases and back.

But even now, with Google, I digress, reading a word, leads to a phrase, leads to an article, a book, a movie, a Google or Wikipedia search, Ask.com, and back to dictionaries and atlases. Yea digression!

What's chervil? Who has the largest population New York City or LA? I digress from luxury hotels on remote New Zealand islands to African Mountain tops, to wisps of Taiga history. Curiosity feeds digression. Digression every flowing somewhere...

Now how did Kathy become my friend? Her mom was in California, my mom was sick and I was a familiar face at the family reunion and had a broom, cumin, pepto-bismol or what ever was needed. And I admired her enormously for the spunk to venture forth in an old car, in the fierce heat, with two kids and twenty dollars to digress from her regular life because her family was so important to her.

The two people that family seems most important to are Kathy and Ian -- but I digress.

May you have ten good digressions today. From chaos to order or vice verse.