Mystery car sounds

Have you ever been driving, and heard/seen/smelt/felt something that let you know something was wrong with your car? The car still runs, though not as well, and you know you need to fix it, but you don't know how?

That's rather been my mood lately, but with my life as opposed to my car. Something isn't right. I don't know what it is, nor do I know how to fix it, but there is something wrong, elusive though it may be.

But where do you go to find a mechanic for a life? He's not listed in the yellow pages (I know, I checked), he doesn't have a catchy jingle, and I haven't seen a sign lately that says "Life Mechanic, we finance all life changes with nothing down!".

Maybe my analogy holds true, in that we don't always need a professional to fix that sound. Sometimes it's just combining our heads with someone who knows the make and model well.

The problem here is that we are each much more unique than any car ever built. We have more complicated parts than the finest German engineering, and programming the greatest SysAdmin wouldn't touch.

It seems we are left to tinker around under our own hoods, to twist here, pull there, tweak here, and tune there until we're running smoothly again.

So the fact is, we only have one choice. It's not easy, and it involves getting grease up to our elbows. We must each become an engineer, one with a doctoral degree in our own lives. We must know on a higher level not only the stuff we are made of, but of what that stuff can be when everything is in it's proper, working order.

You know, when you think about it, our lives, like a car, can take us anywhere we want to direct them, but only when in it's proper, working, and running order.