Do you know where in the world you are?
Finding the answer is what Geoguessr, a Google Maps based game app, is all about. My son Kai made playing this a bedtime ritual with me during the height of the COVID lockdown.
Together, we’d scan for street signs and cars with partial license plates for clues. We’d look at buildings: the roof shingles, siding materials, and the trees and plants in the landscaping for intel, too.
Along the way, I figured out some Google Maps let you pretend you have your nose pressed up against a restaurant window. Super fun! I mean, you can see the condiments on the tables and everything!
I loved it when an errant dog, chicken, or donkey flashed on the screen. They often appeared only at a particular camera angle, so we’d swipe left and right and pinch our phone screens just to catch another glimpse of their cuteness.
Distractions aside, I performed alright. One time, my guess landed within 50 miles of a spot in rural Bolivia. And the only piece of writing I found was a faded sign on a barn. Isn’t that astonishing?
But no more astonishing than the very fact that this experience was happening.
Had life stayed “normal” my teenager never would’ve asked to play with me. No way would he have put his head on the pillow beside mine on a Wednesday at 9 p.m. Thinking back to those otherwise grim days, I can’t help but feel awe. There are priceless gifts inside dark places.
As you look back a couple of years (or to other hard times in your life—perhaps that’s right now) what shines through like an unexpected jewel?
Consider…
What this jewels tell me about what matters at the end of the day is ____________.
One small, simple way I could center what matters most in my life, now and in the future, is ________.
Please press “reply” and share your answers with me.
