#16 Take Alternate Route.

Matthew 7:13-14 

7:13. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction and many enter through it. 14. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Well there is a challenge if ever I saw one and I seem to be destined for a life of challenges. This passage resonates loudly for me.

It took me a few years of living and asking the hard question after a particular life experience to ask, ‘so where to now, what is it you want to do and make of your life?’ It was then I decided at the ripe age of thirty something, to go through, what seemed like a ‘narrow gate’ to educate myself or maybe that was re-educate myself, go back to TAFE and if that was successful next stage would be enrol in University.

TAFE taught me well it expanded my skills and knowledge and gave me the confidence to believe in myself that I was skilled/smart enough to attempt Uni so I did that and several years of part-time study, working full time and taking care of my Mum that I completed my degree. Woohoo! I was the first female in my immediate family to achieve that.  I have several smart nieces but two in particular have continued with studies during and since, and one has the title of Doctor.  While I am extremely proud of all of them and thankful for what they have achieved my own journey felt like I had emerged out of the darkness into a whole new world!

‘Gates of Hell’ – Rodin

Stage three I was set, I had the courage to head overseas with my degree tucked under my arm, first to Paris France with great ambition to work there as an Accountant , and subsequently the reality that my limited French language skills meant I was better placed in London. I spent  8 years creating a new life and working in one of the Worlds greatest City’s and experiencing all the challenges of being a foreigner living in a different part of the world all because I had the courage to walk through what seemed like a ‘narrow gate’ many years before and to remain focussed. I could not have imagined what impact that journey would have made on my life then, but what I know now is not to be afraid to walk through the ‘narrow gate’ to keep focussed on what to some might be a ‘narrow path’. To seek out what is the right path because I believe it does open up to a more fabulous world.

Practice

Think about what the ‘narrow gate’ and ‘narrow path’ is for you and imagine what would happen if you walked that way?

So now I am in an age bracket beginning with six, still studying, still walking through narrow gates, along narrow paths!

Peace,

Carol Owen