Day 17 - On Track

Day 17 - Todd and I carpool in the mornings and after I dropped him off this morning and headed to work I saw the familiar flashing red light at the track I normally cross.  As I approached to estimate how long the train was going to be I stopped and decided to take a picture of it.  If you lived in Effingham back before the overpasses and underpasses were built this was a very common sight.  I remember being late for school, work, and many times meeting friends because of this very scene. Now days you simply find the nearest overpass or underpass and the train is a minor inconvenience.

When my ex-husband was injured in a terrible accident at work the ambulance couldn't reach him very fast because there was a train on the tracks.  Recently a family from Greenville suffered a terrible loss because of the collision of a family's vehicle with a train.  When I was in high school I lost someone very dear to me along with his brother due to an accident involving their car and a train.  So in many ways trains have not always been a good thing in my life.

I know that trains are very vital to our economy, and if you ever have time to sit while one passes it is actually kind of relaxing as you listen to the sound the wheels on the track make.  I read that the size of the space on the wheel of the train that actually touches the track is only about the size of a silver dollar.  I also learned that about 40% of the worlds freight is hauled by rail.  One thing I usually enjoy when waiting on a train is the artwork that has been painted on many of the cars.  As I pulled up to the stopped train I was very disappointed that there wasn't any cars decorated to photograph, maybe a morning in the future there will be.

Trains are interesting because they almost always go where they are intended to go.  Life is so different than a train.  Each night I plan in my head how my day and week are going to go.  Then when I hear that first alarm go off, you know, the one that is set so I can get up and work out, and I hit snooze things start derailing early.  If only there were a Tara track that I could set my cars of life on and follow it to a tee things would probably work out better for me.  But then again, how much fun would that be.  Sometimes the extra twists and turns in life are what make life interesting and worth hanging around for.  Some of the best friends I have met and some of my most memorable moments have come when I was way off track.

Today is a new beginning.  Does it mean that I will get on and stay on track?  Probably not, but every improvement I make with my life is a step closer.  I will never be perfect, I have come to terms with the fact that the only way I am gonna be skinny in my casket is if I die after a long bout of something.  I am okay with that, my reason for trying to be more like a conductor is to be able to ride this rail of life a little longer and be able to enjoy it a little more than if I continue to let the train constantly derail.

As we start a new week and we are getting closer and closer to spring I want to wish everyone the chance to make your own path and follow it to your best life.