"If you want to make God laugh, tell him your plans."Cutting for Stone by Abraham Verghese
When I was 16 yrs-old and starting to think about where I wanted to go to college, I said I would never go to BYU. I moved to Utah to attend BYU in 1994.
Going on a mission was never part of my plan A, plan B, or plan C. I served a mission in Yekaterinburg, Russia from 1997-1998.
Growing up, I said I was not getting married. I married Mark as soon as he would have me in 1999.
We were not going to have children for a really long time. We had Eleanor in 2001.
Well, I was never going to have a TV in the house and I would never wipe their noses with my hand or clean their faces with my spit. We have two TVs and I've done far worse things than that.
After Ada was born, I said I was done having kids for awhile. Charlotte was born less than two years later.
After Charlotte was born I said I was done having children forever. Decco was born last year. (I know, we've been through this before.)
When Mark and I left Utah in 2002 to attend graduate school, we said we would probably never come back to Utah until our own children came back for school. We moved back to Utah four years later for a job at BYU.
Point made: I'm not good at making and keeping plans. Some people seem highly skilled at staying on course and getting what they want, like they're ordering their life off of a menu, but not me, not so much. Instead, I've had to refine the skill of simply rolling with it. So, rather than making stubborn plans and being constantly disappointed by their unfulfilled conclusions, and rather than being immature enough to say "I will never.....", I've had to try and simply live the best life I know how to live, ready myself for the unexpected and embrace the ever-surprising offerings of my life, and yes, all of those unplanned deliveries.
3 comments:
I was just making a list like yours in my head last week. I do think that most of the things I swore I'd never do have brought me the most happiness though (I swore I'd never marry someone from Antioch...why hello Tyler...best thing in my life).
Sometimes I think you live inside my brain.
WOW... My list isn't exactly the same as yours. BUT like you, I've pretty much acomplished nothing the way that I set out to. It's good to know I'm not alone in that.
I posted a quote awhile back. Ashley is printing it out for me to hang on my wall, in a very large frame. It says:
We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us. - Joseph Campbell
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