It’s happened to all of us. We’re driving somewhere and run into a roadblock that forces us to turn around and find some other route to get where we’re going. Or, we go to our favorite restaurant and find they just ran out of what we went there for. Or, the college course we wanted to take is full, or the outfit we were planning to wear has a stain on it, or the person we thought was cool turned out to be a jerk… or as in the normal course of all of our lives… things just don’t seem to go the way we planned.
No matter what the crisis, no matter how important or unimportant it may be, there’s always that feeling of disappointment, followed by a feeling of confusion, followed by an inevitable self questioning… “So now what do I do?” The answer to that question can define who we are.
Do we just sit there and piss and moan, throw things, cry, and act like a jerk? Do we feel the universe is against us and wonder “why me? Or do we shrug our shoulders, accept what we cannot change, and look for the best alternative way to go from here?
I imagine that if life were absolutely perfect with all of our inner wishes getting gratified the moment they came to mind, it would get boring mighty fast. It may sound like Nirvana to have everything just the way we want it, but what would we do when we got up in the morning? What would there be to strive for, to aim for, to do with our time? Perhaps that is why life is not always exactly as we would like it, to give us the opportunity to decide between options and choose where to go from here.
How many times have we heard of someone who went the wrong way and found what they were looking for, got lost somewhere and ended up finding themselves, tried something new and it ended up changing their lives for the better. Confusion and disappointment need not be negatives if we do not let them take over our thoughts, emotions, and lives. Give them their due… and then move on.
The quote from Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri on the home page of this website is a good way to move on when your plans go awry and things are not going exactly as you would like them to. “Your life has been given to you with all its impulses and urges, thoughts and emotions, talents and handicaps, as the raw material to be fashioned into a thing of beauty and joy, by whatever creative ability you can summon.” It may not have been the way you originally intended… but there is always a best way to go from here.
peace……………..ag