The Unexpected

One minute, the direction is clear. The day planned.

And, just like that, it becomes thoroughly unplanned.

In that instant, everything changes. 

We learn, in these moments, to cherish the things that matter most.

Yesterday, in the surf, someone said an unkind word to me. I allowed their words to take a stranglehold on me for the remainder of the surf. I authorized their words to take away the joy of being in the water at dawn.

My wise partner counselled me that they might have been offering something for me to learn. 

Yet I could not get back the beautiful time I sacrificed to give another’s words authority over me.

An hour or so later, a phone call from my partner changed my day entirely. He had almost lost consciousness driving and was being taken to hospital in an ambulance. He is OK, and they have not determined what was going on. Luck favoured him being in the lane closest to the curb, and luck provided a driveway to get into. No one else was hurt. It could have been far worse.

My focus, receiving that phone call, became singular. While driving to the hospital, I thought about the morning I gave away to another authority. 

Here, at this moment when my love’s life was endangered, all of that peripheral noise that I give authorship over my life was gone. In reflection, laughable.

I am still learning this lesson. Life reminds me again to cherish the moments that matter. To have my precious time be filled with everything that enlivens me.

There is a teaching in the unexpected. Do we bend, or do we break? If broken, do we get up and find a path that is more coherent to our being?

Time and the unexpected bring us closer to our truth.

This is a sweet opening and invitation to discard all that is not enlivening to us.

Photo Taken April 17th 2024