Of white lines and yellow bumps…

I’m not sure if it gets foggy where you are. That kind of low-hanging, dense, you-can’t see-across-the-street, kind of fog. But here in the central valley of California it can really come down after a few days of rain and warm days.
Today is one such day. My kids tell me that it’s how they know it’s Christmas/winter time when it’s foggy and they love it. The youngest said this morning “isn’t it beautiful outside?” We don’t get snow, so they’re a little twisted, these kids.
When it’s especially thick it can silence the world.
You know it’s foggy when you come to a stop sign (if you can see it) and you have to roll down your window to listen if other cars are coming because you can’t see their headlights. You can’t really see much of anything.
I got lost in the fog one time on the freeway and ended up 20 miles beyond my turn off.
The white lines on the side of the road that break just before the intersection and the yellow bumps and lines in the center are the only guides you might have to find your way from place to place and keep you from drifting into oncoming traffic. God forbid you’re in the country where you don’t even have those markers to go by.
One time I ran out of gas on the foggy road home from a concert out of town. I knew where I was (kinda), but it was very late and I was dressed up and I had to go to a farmhouse to ask for a ride into town to get gas. This was before the cell phone. It was like one of those Stephen King movies-stumbling along the road to find the single porch light glowing in a very dark and silent world. Fortunately the farmer wasn’t the suspicious or malicious type and I was safely delivered back to my car in one piece.
Some of my very best prayers have been said in the fog in my car on the way to somewhere. Usually these prayers are simply for safety, but sometimes, on really foggy nights they’re those beggy prayers- “please, oh please let me not crash into a tree” and sometimes they’re the bargaining types “if you just get me there I promise I will…”
I wonder about those white lines and yellow bumps in the road though. I wonder about the people who put them there and who first thought of this idea and hopefully he or she is thinking of very cool to invent.
I wonder too about those people in my life that are my white lines and yellow bumps- those great ones who keep me from drifting into oncoming traffic or driving completely off the road into some muddy ditch.
I’m blessed, lucky, happy, at peace because of them- because of you. If you are reading this, you are likely aware of how important you are to me and to others. If someone hasn’t told you this today, let me be the first. You are important to me.
Find your way home, ask for help, let your way be guided by those you trust and love,  and “Let’s be careful out there.”
We’ll talk later,
Gayle