“You have brains in your head, you have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose.  You’re on your own.  And you know what you know and YOU are the guy who’ll decide where to go.”~ Dr Suess

Who can go wrong with Dr. Suess!  If you are an educator or a parent of young children you will know that this is Dr. Suess week; it is at our school.  So today –  I picked up this book, that I hadn’t seen in a while, I flipped through the pages and began to smile:)  I remembered it well. Oh… please do tell…

Oh, the Places You’ll Go! is one of Dr. Suess’s best.  It really is for the adult world.  I had forgotten about it.  I bought it back in the 90’s after it first came out.  I took it to mean so much more than the words on the page. I was surprised at so much of the inferential meaning; a great piece of writing for sure.    But I gave it away to a young man who was battling cancer.  As I read it to him, he started to smile.  I let him keep it so he could read it over and over.  Sadly, he was gone in just a few short days.    His mother wanted me to have the book.  I told her to keep it and when she was ready, she should read it.

It’s about life.  “I’m sorry to say so, but, sadly, it’s true, that Bang-ups and Hang-ups can happen to you.”

Life isn’t always smooth sailing and when it’s not we have choices to make.  We can hang out waiting and waiting. Waiting for the phone to ring, or waiting for that diamond ring, or waiting to be crowned king, but you have to do something!

Escape that mental attitude, and take a ride and change your mood.  Once more you’ll be riding high, and you can say, I’m just that guy.  And even when your sails blow down, And you know they will because, well, you were letdown.  So pick yourself up and smile again, because your life is waiting, there are no stand-ins:)

Okay, so I have a little Dr. Suess in me.  But, the message is clear.  If you are in that waiting stage you are not moving forward.  You are kind of stuck.  This is when you need to pick up this book and smile away as you read each page, it just might make your day:)    Oh, the places you’ll go, with God at your side, always looking up, oh… what a ride!  So think long and hard on what you want to do, because your life is a gift and it’s up to you!

“So… be your name Buxbaum or Bixby or Bray, or Mordecai Ali Van Allen O’Shea, you’re off to Great Places!  Today is your day! Your mountain is waiting.  So… get on your way!!”

As always, keep hiking to the top!!

Kimberly Rae