highways, cutouts and falling rocks

I live in Northeastern Kentucky. There aren't mountains where I drive but there are hills. Lots, and lots of hills. Because of the hills, drilling and blasting had to be done to make roads. If you travel Interstate 64 through KY you will see ample evidence.

As I drove 64W to Morehead today I noticed the cutouts have changed. There is always loose rock, but the frequency and amount of fallen rock surprised me.

We've had more snow and ice and rain in the last month than we normally have and I know that played into it. Several thoughts about this hit me on my way home.

1. For this road to be built, controlled blasting had to happen. It was planned and the change, when it first occurred, was drastic. People were aware. I thought about life. How almost every adult  I know has lived through at least one "blasting". Some kind of "big event" that changed the landscape of life as they knew it. Could be an addition to to their family, or a loss. A hiring, a promotion, a demotion, a firing. Could be any number of things, but when it is fresh and new, we are ever mindful of it. 

2. After the blasting, planned or not, we understand that what once was, no longer is "normal". Slowly, we learn to navigate the "new road" and it becomes familiar, even though it may never become comfortable.

3. Those who weren't around "before" have no idea of the major change that occurred or the work involved to pave the path we or they are travelling on. It isn't their fault that they don't know what they don't know.

4. The earth, which we tend to think is solid under our feet, really isn't solid. It is shifting constantly. As the ground freezes and thaws, as rain falls, things move. Sometimes they move enough, (in the right or wrong way, depending on your perspective) that parts of what we thought was solid, give way, tumble, get dislodged. I thought about some of the "big" changes in my life, how I think things are settled and I am getting comfortable with what now is. Until boom!- something shifts and pieces begin to fall around me, often things I have no control over.

5. I realized, anew, when pebbles or boulders come crashing into my life it doesn't mean I am doing anything wrong. It means I am living and living things move and change. So rather than be discouraged and think things are a hopeless mess, I'll be thankful for the evidence that life is not meant to be static and damage control is simply part of being alive.

6. The last thing I noticed was how there were still icicles hanging on some of the rock walls, but not on others. The difference? Even though it was the same road, the same time, the same weather all around, the rock with ice in sheets or hanging like daggers was on the side of the road that doesn't get the afternoon sun. 

Life application: there are people travelling the same road I am on, but their situations and circumstances are vastly different than mine. There is no appropriate room or place for judging. There is always plenty of room for kindness, compassion and love. I wasn't able to safely get a pic of the icicles, but those white spots are sheets of ice.

  

"Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive." Colossians 3:12-13