Parcheesi'd

My family loves playing games. Scrabble, Monopoly, Ratuki, Rummikub, Othello...we have a healthy collection of favorite family games. One game that we used to play a lot when I was little was the game Parcheesi. Apparently, this game was a big deal in the royal courts of India; all I know is that it has given me a very unique way to see pieces of my world.


You see, in the game of Parcheesi, the goal is to get all of your pieces (small colored pieces of round wood) around the board and into your home space. Along the way, you can do all sorts of things to achieve this goal or to impede the other players from getting to their home space. One of these maneuvers is to build a roadblock. When a player lands two of his or her pieces on the same space, it creates an impassable block that can only be broken by the person having to move one of the pieces forward. It is quite annoying for everyone except the blockade maker, really.

This little maneuver happens all the time in my life. It's as if the world is out to Parcheesi me.


Driving down the interstate, a semi truck pulls into the left lane in order to very slowly and tediously pass another truck. They end up flanking each other for ten miles going down the road at three miles below the speed limit. Congratulations to all the drivers behind them, you have just been Parcheesi'd.

Waiting in line at the self check-out with an arm-full of groceries when suddenly an elderly woman and a redneck-looking tough guy come up on either side of you and move directly behind the people currently at the check-out line because apparently you didn't look like you were waiting? Yep, you've been Parcheesi'd.

At work, you're completely ready to go for the weekend and you get the dreaded email: We need such-and-such paperwork filled out and submitted before you leave. You were definitely planning to start that on Monday. Parcheesi'd.

Or perhaps you have a ridiculous number of papers due in all of your classes and you are having to choose between sleep and academia. In reality, there is no choice there. There is simply a Parcheesi block thrown into your circadian rhythm when you pull that all-nighter...for the third night in a row.

Life is forever interrupted. Things never go exactly according to plan. The plan I had for myself five years ago when I graduated high school and the reality that is currently staring me in the face have but two things in common: 1. It's still my life, and 2. God is still in control of it.

I've come a long way from being a college freshman intent on studying journalism in the hopes of becoming a critic in a big city. As a matter of fact, I've come a long way from being a college senior studying psychology and Spanish in hopes of pursuing a master's in school counseling. Things change quickly.

Sometimes being Parcheesi'd is quite annoying. But you never know the reason for your detour or your road block in life. There are key things that have happened to me and key people that I have met in the past year that I would not have experienced or met if I had followed my original plan. There were things that I witnessed and things that I learned that I am so thankful for now, but at the time, I was beyond angry at being Parcheesi'd into stopping and learning that lesson.

I suppose the main lesson to remember from this is that we could all use a little bit of grace when it comes to waiting for the storms of life to clear...or the semi truck to pass...or the granny at Walmart to scan her fruit...or the paperwork deadline to be met...or those papers to be written and submitted. You never know the stories of the people who created that road block. And you never know the purpose God had in Parcheesi-ing you, be it for just a few minutes or for years.

The important thing is to keep living. As my wise mother often reminds me, nothing takes God by surprise. No matter what may come our way, we are still responsible for upholding Colossians 3:17.

"And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him."

So next time you're stuck in traffic behind two semis, don't curse them out. Simply smile and sigh and mutter under your breath, "Parcheesi'd."