The Kangaroo That Stopped the Interstate
Field Note: When forward motion meets unexpected grace
I grew up in North Alabama, not too far from I-65. Lots of trips throughout the Tennessee Valley, up to Nashville, down to Birmingham and beyond. Back then, road trips were how I learned direction, space, silence... and the soundtrack of Southern sermons playing from the backseat.
These days, I call Australia home. And right now, on a winter break secondment, I'm back in the States for their summer. A foot in each world. Kangaroos in one. Cracker Barrels in the other.
Which is probably why this story caught me the way it did.
On April 29th, 2025, traffic stopped cold on Interstate 85 in Macon County, Alabama. No wreck. No roadworks. A rogue marsupial. A kangaroo, loose and hopping along the highway. Sheila.
She'd slipped away from a local pumpkin patch and petting zoo, and there she was, bounding along the edge of the road like she had somewhere to be. The police shut down both sides of the interstate until her owner could come, deliver a tranquilizer dart, and carry her safely back to her enclosure. "We see a little bit of everything here," the sheriff said. That day, they saw Australia come to Alabama.
Here's the part that a few folks missed at first glance: kangaroos can't move backward. Not easily. Not by design. That's why they (and the emu) are on the Australian coat of arms. Both only move forward. It's meant to symbolise progress.
Forward motion. Perpetually moving towards the future.
But what happens when a creature built for forward motion gets off course? What happens when you're made to move but find yourself in the wrong place, slowing everything down and needing rescue?
The necessity of forward motion has been articulated in countless ways. Walt Disney once said, "We keep moving forward... because we're curious." The metaphor is more practical for others: you fall over if you stop pedalling a bike. Moving ahead isn't just poetic; it's pragmatic; it's how balance works. Then there are those, like Paul the Apostle, who speak to a deeper, more spiritual drive: "...forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal...."
But pressing on doesn't always look like winning. Sometimes, it looks like pulling over. Catching your breath. Admitting you've drifted. Being humble enough to stop and brave enough to start again. Even Sheila didn't get home on her own. She needed help. We all do, from time to time.
Maybe the grace isn't just in the speed. Maybe it's in the redirection.
Sheila was made to leap, but she still needed someone to guide her home so she could jump again.
I suspect many of us recognise ourselves in similar straits: made to move, called to press on, but wholly dependent on grace to help us do it well.
So here's to the desire to keep. moving. forward.
Here's to the stops that lead to starts.
Here's to mercy in motion... and the strange things that slow us down just long enough to send us on our way again.
What unexpected 'stops' have helped you find your way forward?
Where have you found mercy in motion on your own path?