Mother’s Ritual

Getting lost is part of my travel story.

I would love to tell you that whenever I visit a new city or place, I carefully plan my journey, follow the directions and arrive exactly where I am supposed to be.

That is not my reality.

I get lost. A lot.

My children have a love-and-hate relationship with going somewhere new with me. For many families, the famous travel question might be, “Mum, are we there yet?”

For us, getting there is the adventure.

I cannot read maps very well, so I try hard to plan ahead. I look at where we are going before we leave. I try to remember landmarks. I check the journey.

And somehow, I can still get lost.

I have even managed to turn what should have been a twenty-minute journey close to home into hours of trying to find where I am supposed to be.

There have been tears.

There has been pleading.

And there has been a lot of praying.

Getting Lost Can Be Frightening

We can laugh about some of our adventures afterwards, but being lost does not always feel funny when it is happening.

Research into travel and finding our way shows that becoming lost or disorientated can bring feelings of anxiety, fear and loss of control. Stress can also make navigating harder because it becomes more difficult to think calmly about where to go next.

I understand that feeling.

You look around and nothing is familiar.

You don’t know which direction you came from.

Your phone battery might be getting low.

It might be getting dark.

The children might be tired.

You might have a train to catch, a hotel to find, an appointment to reach or somewhere you promised you would be.

Suddenly the little voice inside you starts saying:

What if I can’t find it?

What if we’re going the wrong way again?

What if we miss the train?

What if nobody can help us?

The more worried you become, the harder it can feel to work out what to do.

Sometimes Getting Lost Introduces You to People

There is another side to getting lost that I have learned to appreciate.

You have to ask people for help.

“Excuse me, do you know where this is?”

And sometimes you get much more than directions.

You get stories.

You hear about the area. Someone tells you what used to be down that road. Someone else tells you about a better place to visit.

Sometimes you even get a little gossip about their neighbours!

You started the conversation because you were lost, but suddenly you are talking to someone whose path you probably would never have crossed otherwise.

Other travellers have described getting lost in similar ways — an unwanted wrong turn becoming an unexpected encounter, discovery or act of kindness.

Perhaps that is one of the strange things about getting lost.

You can discover a place while trying desperately to leave it.

Getting Lost in Nature Is a Different Adventure

Cities are not the only places where I have managed to lose my way.

There are also walks, woodland and camping.

Those adventures can bring their own unexpected encounters.

You take a wrong path and suddenly notice something you would have missed if you had followed the planned route.

A curious little animal.

A beautiful tree.

A quiet corner of woodland.

A view you didn’t know was there.

Of course, there is an important difference between wandering slightly off your planned route and being seriously lost. If you are genuinely lost, especially somewhere remote, safety comes first.

But some wrong turns become stories.

And some of those stories stay with us for years.

My Emergency Travel Toolkit: Crying and Praying

After all these years, you might think I have developed an amazing sense of direction.

I haven’t.

My emergency travel toolkit still seems to be crying and praying.

And some of my best prayers have come from those moments.

Not because I sat somewhere peaceful with beautiful music playing and carefully chose every word.

Quite the opposite.

They came when I was desperate.

God, please help me.

God, where am I?

Please help us find the hotel.

Please get me to this train station.

Please send someone who can help me.

When you are frightened enough, there isn’t much time for fancy words.

You just pray.

Maybe that is why those prayers can feel so powerful.

There is nothing prepared.

Nothing polished.

Just a person saying:

God, I don’t know the way. Please guide me.

Maybe You Are Lost Right Now

Perhaps that is how you found this prayer.

Maybe you are sitting in your car somewhere unfamiliar.

Maybe you have walked much further than you planned.

Maybe you are standing in a strange city looking at street names that mean absolutely nothing to you.

Maybe your children are beside you asking questions and you are trying not to show them how worried you are.

Or perhaps you simply took one wrong turn and panic has started making everything feel much worse than it is.

First, make sure you are somewhere safe.

If you are driving, stop somewhere safe before looking at your phone or directions.

If you are walking, consider going into a shop, hotel, café, station or another public place where you can safely ask for help.

Then breathe.

You don’t have to work out the whole journey at once.

Work out the next safe step.

And while you do that, you can pray with me.

A Prayer When You Are Lost

God,

I am lost.

I don’t know which way to go, and right now I am frightened.

Please calm my mind so I can think clearly.

Guide my steps.

Help me notice the signs I need to see, the road I need to take, the person I can safely ask for help, or the place where I can stop and work out where I am.

If I am beginning to panic, help me slow down.

If I am tired, give me strength.

If I am travelling with my children, my family or people I love, please keep all of us safe.

Protect us as we find our way.

God, please place kind and helpful people along our path.

Give me the courage to ask for help when I need it and the wisdom to recognise when something does not feel safe.

Please lead me towards the place I am trying to reach.

The hotel.

The station.

The road.

The campsite.

The car.

Home.

Wherever I need to be, please guide me there safely.

And God, if this wrong turn becomes part of my journey, help me find something good within it.

Perhaps a kind stranger.

A beautiful place.

A story I would never have heard.

A moment that one day makes us laugh.

Or simply the reminder that even when I don’t know where I am, I can still call upon You.

Right now, I don’t need to know every turn ahead.

Just show me the next one.

One road.

One sign.

One safe step at a time.

And when I finally arrive, let me look back and remember not only the fear, but also the people who helped me, the things I discovered and the prayer that carried me through.

I may not know the way right now.

God, please help me find it.

So it is.

When You Finally Find Your Way

There is a special feeling when you finally recognise something.

There it is!

The hotel.

The station.

The car.

The road you were looking for.

You can finally breathe again.

And suddenly the disaster begins turning into a story.

Maybe getting lost will never become my favourite part of travelling. I would certainly prefer some journeys to remain twenty minutes rather than somehow becoming four hours!

But I have learned something from all those wrong turns.

Sometimes we find kindness because we needed to ask for help.

Sometimes we hear stories because we stopped to speak to someone.

Sometimes we notice something beautiful because we weren’t where we intended to be.

And sometimes, when we have no idea where to go next, we discover one of the simplest prayers we can ever say:

God, please show me the way.

And then we take the next safe step.

So it is.