Meet Honda. No, he's not the Geico lizard, but he's just as cool. This is a picture of Honda after a very long, very stressful trip. Yes, I spent more than an hour with him, so I feel that I have the right to judge his mood and well being.
So why was his trip so stressful? Well, that's a good question. The point is though, he stuck around to get photographed.
So, let's talk about some other things for a bit... and we'll come back to Honda. You also want to know where he got his name too, right?
Let's give a few examples of what I learned from Honda.
A handful of years ago I transitioned to a new job. I also had a new baby girl. I also bought a new house. All this at the same time, sorta. If you know me, I handle new stress and changes really well... right... I handle new changes about as well as Republicans in a Democratically controlled House and Senate (I threw that one in for you Kev!). So here I am, in my new job, trying to pull it off. I have found that in most of my life for me anyway that doing something is more about projecting that I can do something as opposed to actually knowing how to do it. So of course, everyone and everything is out to get me and I come down with a cold. Miserable. I'm tough though, unless you ask my wife, then you know I'm a complete baby that falls apart when I'm sick. Anyway, I digress. So I'm sick with this new job. Ok... Then I have to figure out how I'm going to swing the selling of one house and the buying of another. Oh God crisis! You would have thought my world was ended. I really did think that I would just fall apart. I saw the end of the tunnel, going back to my old job with my tail between my legs and the cackles of "you couldn't hack it". So just about the time I'm crying shame about this new job and new house, I got a wake up call... literally.
After falling asleep of what I thought was a rough day, I awoke to my son telling me that mommy needed me. I ran to my daughter's room. My wife was calm but I knew it was serious. My daughter had a medical issue. I won't go into the details, but seven days later, all spent in a hospital, she was ok.
Why tell you all this? Well, after sitting in the hospital looking at my little girl, I figured out that I sure had it good. Good job, a job at all! And with decent pay (some of my co-workers will disagree, with fair reason but the point is that it is decent pay). The fact that I actually, at one time even if for a few days, owned two houses. Some people live in a box and I'm stressed about moving into a house? But then on top of that, I'm worried about all of this stupid stuff and my daughter lays there in a hospital bed, her status beyond my control. God has a funny way of putting things into perspective.
That experience helped me pass this perspective on to other family members and friends.
Take for example one of my family members. For anonymity we will call her... mom. I wouldn't want to give out which member it is, would I?
Mom called me one morning upset because her car broke down. I drove over to meet her, and to let her borrow my car. Her car was broke beyond economical repair. She was stressed as this meant new car. I then began to detail to her all the things that occurred and the way and timing they occurred. I have an extra car that I don't need for her to borrow. I was on leave from work, which meant I was available to meet with her, to shop for a new car with her, and to take her to get a new car. She had pre-saved for this possibility so it wouldn't be a complete set back. When we choose her new car we calculated gas usage and found that it actually helped assist on the monthly cost. She also had to make several long trips after buying it, which made us all feel better with a new car. After discussing this with her, she had a different perspective and realized that she wasn't looking at it in the right perspective at first.
Of course, less than a month later some idiot hit her brand new car. I don't know who was more mad, her or me. But alas... it's just a car and I had to be reminded of what could have happened... by my mom of all people (are we still calling that anonymous family member mom?). She said it could have been worse, she could have gotten injured. Looks like she learned to look at it the right way... I guess I had forgotten.
I've forgotten a lot lately, which brings me back to Honda. Remember Honda? The lizard? Please, don't argue his species with me, just roll with it for now.
So I've been forgetting how lucky I am a lot lately. One weekend I worked nearly night and day, and then drove a ways to a family member's funeral. On the way home a friend called and wanted me to come over. Momma cat was away, it was time to play (Michelle you know our play is tame by all standards... at ease!). I decided to go, because I know my friend Josh would drop everything to come see me after a long day as well.
I got in my car, my Honda, and began to drive. Yes, I speed. It was dark and there were stretches of dark road. Suddenly movement across the bottom of the windshield. Must be a leaf. Then a patch of light in the road way. As the light moved over the car at 80 MPH (ok, I'm lying, but the speed is irrelevant past 65...) there he was. His little head bobbed as his hands gripped the sides of my wipers. He kept his chin just above the view of the hood. I can't imagine what he was thinking. Possibly the scene from 2001 A Space Odyssey as Dave is going through that LSD themed crossover into a new dimension? Or maybe the feeling one gets while jumping into hyper drive on the Millennium Falcon with the stars whizzing by? That's not the only things that would be whizzing if it were me! Anyway, I found myself chastising this little creature every time he would look upward above the hood. He had two choices, hold on or fly off! Did he give up? Did he let loose? No, he held on with determination. I pulled into my friend's driveway, and let him crawl up my sleeve. I took him over to a plant, and poof, he went from a small town, small neighborhood, small house to the big house, big neighborhood, big town. Think of the fun he'll have now!
What's my point. I don't know. I think I might disappoint you, my faithful readers that made it this far on this post. But here's the thing. This little lizard was comfortable, had his thing sunbathing in the day and sleeping at night on the top of the Honda's wiper. Suddenly he was whirled around at 80 or so miles an hour. It could have easily been the end for him. It would have been so easy to just let go, but he held on. He stuck it out. When he got to his destination he had a whole new look at things. New plants, new house, new trees, new everything. A new perspective. For some reason I looked at this and was reminded that no matter how bad things get, no matter how rough the road (or drive) seems, no matter how fast seems to be flying by... just hold on. The road doesn't go on forever, and eventually it will get back to normal... oh and hope someone doesn't turn on the wipers...
Oh... did I mention there was a chick lizard checking him out after he got settled in at his new pad... See, things are already looking up for him...
