Life is a Journey

 

 “Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.”

— Matsuo Bashō

Dear reader,

Have you ever had one of those days that felt like stepping into the Mad Hatter’s tea party—chaotic, comical, and completely out of your control?

Yesterday was one of those days for me.

It began innocently enough. I moved my car out of the driveway so a road crew could resurface our street. Giant machines roared to life, tearing up the pavement and laying down fresh asphalt. With nowhere to go, I decided it was the perfect moment to clean and organize the garage.

Progress was being made—until every bathroom and shower pan in the house started backing up with sewage.

Trying not to panic, I called a plumber. He discovered a major blockage and climbed onto the roof to run a hose down a vent pipe. In the process he accidentally punctured the fresh‑water line, turning one problem into two.

Remember, the street was still closed by the paving project, so getting reinforcements to the house became an ordeal of its own. Eventually the crew cleared the clog, but the broken line couldn’t be fully repaired without cutting into the stucco—a job scheduled for Monday. For now, a temporary patch keeps water flowing.

So on Monday the road crew returns, the plumbers come back, and I’ll be hunting for a contractor to restore the stucco. Yet somehow, the drains work, we have water, and the garage is—miraculously—organized.

What struck me amid the madness is how perfectly it mirrors life. We clear one mess only to uncover another; we edge forward only to find the way blocked—or worse, leaking. Still, we patch what we can, keep the water running, and carry on.

Bashō reminds us that the journey itself is home. Even when our literal homes are under repair and everything seems to fall apart, we stand on holy ground. Grace shows up between the broken pipes, closed roads, and torn‑open walls—sometimes in nothing more glamorous than a clean garage.

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Further Reflections

“We are healed of a suffering only by experiencing it to the full.”
— Marcel Proust

“God walks with us in the furnace, not just around it.”
— Timothy Keller

“Grace is not opposed to effort. It is opposed to earning. Effort is action; earning is attitude.”
— Dallas Willard

“Nevertheless, ye shall not fear, for ye are mine, and I have overcome the world.”
— Doctrine and Covenants 50:41

“We are not here to make a living, but to live a life worthy of the calling to which we have been called.”
— Elder Jeffrey R. Holland

“There are times when we have to trust in the Lord’s plan even when it seems like everything around us is falling apart.”
— President Russell M. Nelson