Minor. Navigational. Changes.

Trouble is like the bottom of a canyon; it’s so much easier to get in than it is to get back out. It's never where I intend to end up , either. And yet, one by one, wrong (or just easier) decisions lead me slowly down the deer trail until suddenly, I look around and realize there is nowhere left to go but back up the other side.

A while back I was hiking alone on a Sunday afternoon when I wandered my way into the back of a box canyon with three sheer cliffs boxing me in before and on both sides. A pile of boulders blocked the path behind me. As I slid down the face of the closest one, I wondered how I’d managed to get myself in such a fix and where the heck the deer trail had gone and why the mosquitoes were so hungry here.
I landed at the bottom only to face another, larger rock sitting square in between me and the place I needed to go.

I was in between a rock and a hard place, literally.

I am embarrassed to admit it now, but I was so frustrated I actually kicked the rock.(Not a great idea.)

Plopping to the dirt, I removed my boot and checked out my bruised toe. While I was sitting there, I remembered an event that had taken place several years earlier.
A friend and sort-of counselor had taken me aside one day to tell me I needed to stop feeling sorry for myself for the mess I was in and just make a few Minor Navigational Changes instead. Basically, Put on Your Big Girl Panties and Deal With It. We were talking about some major stuff here, like divorce and moving and quitting my job. Because he was a good friend, and also emboldened by a third Corona, he blurted out those now famous words while I was distracted by salsa and chips.

I nearly choked to death.
After I finally stopped coughing, I wiped my eyes, "Minor Navigational Changes?!,” I hissed loudly, “My God, if the Titanic had made this much of a change, it would be just another boat!" To which he said with arched brow, "Exactly." And because I was tired and not wanting to deal with it at that moment, I told him to stop giving advice or find another ride home.
That was nearly 7 years ago. In hindsight, I see the truth in his advice. If I had made Minor Navigational Changes then, back when they were MINOR, I wouldn't have found myself in the bottom of the bankruptcy canyon 6 years later. I might have been in a place to help my mom when she and my stepfather faced their health crisis. Heck , without all that stress, I probably wouldn't be fighting to lose this extra fluff around my middle.  

And my toe would not have been nearly so sore.
Which leads me to wonder: What Minor Navigational Changes am I avoiding now?