What Made You Change Direction?

Have you ever changed direction?  Once rushing south towards Niagara Falls from Hamilton, Ontario, I found myself on a ramp heading north over a bridge towards Toronto.  Driving across the bridge, I realized that the road I was on had nothing to do with my destination.  After several kilometres, I managed to turn myself around, but lights had gone on in my mind and stayed on, consuming energy, for some time.

I realized that if my hoped-for destination was peace, safety, creativity, productivity, love, and maybe even happiness, I was on the wrong road.

A change of direction can be slow at first and then sudden.  Or it can happen all at once.  My friend, John, was working on his MSc in Engineering Physics at the Chalk River Nuclear Power Plant.  When Chernobyl blew up on April 26, 1986, John's 25th birthday, he quit his graduate program and his research and walked away from Chalk River.

William was a university student in business and economics and entirely invested in the pursuit of money. He planned  to go to school, get a degree in communication, enter some business, and then rise to the top making lots of money along the way.  Then he read Be Here Now by Baba Ram Dass.  He changed his major to comparative religions and soon his interests, beliefs, health and everything else changed as well.  He is grateful!

John told me, much later, that sometimes an event is more of an excuse or a way to mark a turning point.  He thinks perhaps he was changing direction anyway, and Chernobyl was merely an instigating factor.  Perhaps William would have changed direction too without Be Here Now.

Changing direction is difficult, but after the initial disorientation and eventual re-orientation, we are probably grateful for our turn-abouts.

What made you change direction?