What Happens if…
What happens if you give a girl a map?
I remember as a kid my parents used maps or an atlas to plan our family vacations. Throughout my teen years, I would look at maps and dream of places I would travel to when I was older. When Ashley and her brother would go on summer vacations with their dad, she was in charge of reading the map and pointing them in the right direction. This was quite the feat for a 9-year-old!
If you give a girl a map she can dream, plan, travel, direct and find her way to or thru almost anything.
When you say the word “map” most people envision the traditional paper multifold colorful versions you can pick up at the welcome centers when crossing the invisible line into a new state. While I still do use these, along with carrying an atlas on road trips, these are not the only materials in my life I consider to work as a map.
Recipes, lists, and instructions in my mind are things that work in the same manner as maps. Now bear with me here. A road map helps give visual direction. You can lay out a plan on how to get from point A to point B and beyond. If you follow this plan and don’t veer off course or change direction you can reach your destination as calculated in your planning. (safe but boring)
A recipe lays out ingredients and instructions on how to get from Point A (all of your contents for the recipe) to Point B (the delicious end product to be consumed). Again, if you follow the recipe and don’t veer off course or change the ingredients or instructions, you should end up with a wonderful end result. (if you’re like my mom tho, you’ll double the amount of chocolate chips in the cookie recipe - even more delicious and definitely not boring)
You can apply this “map” train of thought to many things in your daily life such as your shopping list which is simply a map of what to stock in your home to be able to make the delicious recipe mentioned above.
Assembly pages for the new shelving unit you bought on your shopping trip are also a map on how to get from a flat box of parts to a finished piece of furniture to hold your pantry items from your shopping trip. (assembly instructions are normally a poor, very poor map these days and you may or may not end up at the correct destination on the first try)
Sewing patterns, color by numbers, craft projects, instructions for the babysitter, camping checklists, all of these things can be considered a map, again, in my opinion. With this structured yet wide berth of map ideals, Ashley and I, and now Nora, make grand plans to follow.
The one critical point to remember when you are dealing with us girls tho…we consider a map as merely a suggestion or possible vague outline on how to get from Point A to Point B. Trips, cooking, packing lists, crafts, baking and even raising children…..well, we like to throw in some creativity and veer off the main path to take the scenic route. Did we miss a turn 5 miles back? We’re lacking a specific recipe ingredient? What?!? we forgot a bag on the steps for the trip
We truly don’t sweat the small stuff. We take our map, fold it as best we can, laugh at ourselves, and find the beauty and happiness in where we are.
Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. - Henry David Thoreau
Map (noun) - a visual representation of an entire area or part of an area typically shown as a flat surface, most frequently used to illustrate geography.
Map (transitive verb) - to plan in detail; “to map out”
Map (intransitive verb) - to be located, to be assigned in a relation or connection
