Are we there YET?

………………….Are we there YET?

Sweet yet annoying question. Many of us must have heard from the back seat of the car, while driving; usually out of town, at times even during local trips. Once you have covered almost 80% of the journey but those last 20% remain and the frequency and annoyance of the question increases. “Are we there yet?”

If you are a parent you know what I am talking about. If you are not a parent, you may remember asking that question to your parents as a kid.

We do something similar in our lives forget how much we have traveled already, forget the 80% covered and feel good about that, we whine about the 20% left and even doubt how difficult and tiring it might be to reach to the destination.

And in one of those moments if you are shown a map with details on where you started from? Someone reminds you of the obstacles that you crossed on the road many miles ago? Would you not feel good? Wouldn’t it be nice, an occasional reminder on the hurdles that were left behind. To get an occasional pat on the back for persistence and diligence needed to drive so many miles; an occasional rendezvous with the memory of fun and enjoyment during the past driving; an occasional talk about the food on the last "pit stop" taken at a roadside fast food joint.

That is what I experienced in one of the days when the frequency, the annoyance of the overbearing question; “are we there yet?” had started pushing me to insanity. (I have been asking that to myself again and again regarding my life journey.) I met not one but two co-travelers from the past years. From two different stretches of the journey. Both from two different stages, two different land marks in my life and that reminded me on where I had started and how far I have come till now. And there flashed some moments that really make me deserve a pat on the back.

I am basking in the glory of the journey completed so far, giving a mental pat on the back and encouraging to start again. I know after this pit stop when the rubber hits the road, the heat, the anger, the frustration and the fatigue will start coming back. And I will again ask, “Am I there yet?” but that is not this moment. This moment I know I have covered a long way. So I am relaxing and rehearsing the answer for whenever I ask that question again to myself.

“No we are not there yet, but eventually we will be and then we may miss the road and the drive and all that the road had offered when we are there. So now that we are moving, let us enjoy what the road is offering (even the pot-holes) and the enjoying will ascertain that we are there sooner than we think.”