It's that season in Wisconsin.
Orange barrels and cones litter our streets and highways.
We are forced to slow down or detour.
It takes longer to get where we want to go.
They're putting in a new water main and repaving the street that runs in front of my house.
The crew dug a trench in my yard to put in the new piping. And trimmed a few branches off my favorite tree.
They put up giant orange barrels around it.
Even though it was obnoxious for a couple days, it was nice to have that impossible to miss visual sign of the construction underway.
At least it was clear what was happening. And I wasn't in danger of falling into that hole.
Our lives, like our streets and highways, are often under construction too.
But there are no bright orange barrels to let others know about the renovations going on.
No visual way to ask them to slow down, change their course, or watch out for obstacles.
Think about how your life looks now compared to what it was ten years ago.
Or twenty.
Or forty.
The trenches you've had to dig to get rid of the old and bring in the new.
The repair work you've had to complete to restore your sanity or rebuild relationships.
How did you let others know you were going through it?
Did you ever have someone unintentionally get injured because they didn't know it was happening?
Construction is necessary for us to grow and adapt to the constant changes in life.
And even though it's uncomfortable, the alternative is worse. We can't just sit still and watch things fall into disrepair around us.
But it sure would be nice if the construction in our lives would come with visual cues.
Especially since we're all going through it. And it's happening in every season. Not just summer in Wisconsin.
Picture all of us with little construction cones in the air over our heads. Signals that our lives are ever-changing and we're all a work in progress.
Maybe we'd look at each other and smile a little wider. Feel a bit more empathetic and just a tiny bit relieved that we aren't in this season alone.
Maybe we should celebrate together each time we finish a phase of construction.
The results can be pretty satisfying, after all.
The street in front of my house will be repaved and the bumps and potholes that have annoyed me for years will be gone soon.
My lawn will look even better when the new soil and grass seed are put down and it becomes lush and green again.
And I'm sure I'll grow to love the imperfections in my tree. Like I've grown to love the imperfections in my own life.
Heck, maybe we could even learn to love construction season!
Who am I kidding?
We're never going to love the orange barrels, the detours, the dust and the traffic. Or the painful stuff we have to go through sometimes when life changes.
But we can learn to keep it in perspective.
And see this season for what it is...
A necessary part of life that (eventually) makes the roads we travel a whole lot smoother.
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