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A Bend in the Road: Birds Don’t Fly

   Written by on March 22, 2018 at 1:06 pm
Cheryl Gowin and Dennis Gowin.  Call us at our counseling practice with your feedback, comments, issues, or questions at 434-808-2637.

Cheryl Gowin and Dennis Gowin.  Call us at our counseling practice with your feedback, comments, issues, or questions at 434-808-2637.

Did you know that more than 40% of the birds in New Zealand don’t fly?  They include kiwi, kakapo, takahe, penguin, weka, moa, three flightless wrens, and two adzebills.  Why? The scientists say it is because the birds don’t have any natural predators.  Flying takes a lot of energy. With the ground being so safe, the birds save energy by walking.  So put another way, with no bends in the road or disturbing moments, the birds never used the energy necessary to learn to fly.

A favorite movie is Doc Hollywood.  The plot is about a highly motivated young doctor, Ben Stone.  He is driving from the east coast to Hollywood.  Because of his impatience, Ben zooms down the shoulder of the freeway to take a “short cut” around construction.  Of course, he gets lost and that begins a series of misadventures and bends in his road.  His misadventures end with his turning away from a high paying career as a plastic surgeon and moving back to small town South Carolina.  That is about a million miles away from his plans at the beginning of the movie.

Ray Charles started to lose his sight at the age of four and was completely blind by the age of seven, apparently as a result of glaucoma.  He went to a school for the blind where he learned to play the piano.  His first job, where he earned just $4 a night, was playing the piano at the Ritz Theatre in Jacksonville, Florida.  Ray Charles went on from that humble beginning to pioneer the soul music genre combining blues, rhythm and blues, and gospel.  He also contributed to the integration of country music, rhythm and blues, and pop music during the 1960s.  Charles became one of the first black musicians granted artistic control by a mainstream record company.    

Imagine being the 13-year-old daughter of one of the world’s most famous mega-church preachers.  Now imagine having to tell your father, at only 13, you are expecting a child.  Sarah Jakes Roberts wrote about her life in a memoir titled, “Lost and Found: Finding Hope in the Detours of Life.” Sarah talks about her dreams as a young girl, dreams of a life full of love, laughter, and happy endings.  She then goes on to describe her life; a teen mom and a high-profile preacher’s kid wandering down a lonely life’s road.  Shunned at school and gossiped about at church.  From this struggle, she has grown to be a wife, mother, and successful business person.

Stephen Hawking was a theoretical physicist and Director of Research at the Centre for Theoretical Cosmology at the University of Cambridge.  His scientific works includes research in to gravitational singularity theorems, the framework of general relativity and the theoretical prediction that black holes emit radiation, called Hawking radiation.  Hawking was the first to set out a theory of cosmology explained by a union of the general theory of relativity and quantum mechanics.   

Ok, most of this is totally beyond my comprehension.  However, would it surprise you that Dr. Hawking, at the age of 21, received the diagnosis of ALS?  ALS, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease, gradually paralyzed him over the decades.

Please don’t read this as saying that we should have more trials and disruptions in our lives, but rather to not be discouraged by the bends in the road of life. Watching Mount Vesuvius explode, from a distance, was magnificent.  Watching it from the foot of Mount Vesuvius on Pampii was deadly.

We can struggle with not knowing where to turn or whom to seek for help.  It may seem that no one has ever been down this path; that we are stuck in the midst of trouble.  However, others have navigated similar struggles.  Don’t go it alone.  Find the help you need to search for the light at the end of the tunnel.

Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.  2 Corinthians 1:3-4

About Cheryl & Dennis Gowin

Cheryl Gowin, Counselor and Dennis Gowin, Director of Discovery Counseling Center. Contact us with your feedback, comments, issues or questions at 434-808-2426 or dgowin@discoverycounseling.org.

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