Day #104, #105, #106, & #107: Sometimes life just happens

John Lennon once said, "life is what happens when you're busy making plans." Many of us have become the consummate planners-college done by 21, grad school done by 25, married by 26, first baby by 28, etc, etc... How lovely it would be to think that all of these wishes and desires, and that's what I intend to call them, played out just as we had envisioned in perfect chronological order. The problem with all of this orderliness and persistent planning is that it's just not realistic. We can plan and scheme and plot all we want, but ultimately life remains in control and has other plans in store for us.

Has anything ever happened to you that left you in complete and utter disbelief? Have you ever woken up one morning or found yourself in a situation where you thought, "This isn't what I had planned!" Funny isn't it. One little instance can change the entire course of life and squash all of that "meticulous planning." But is it really so bad? Perhaps that "little surprise" came when least expected, but when all is said and done, that surprise may turn about to be exactly what was meant to be at exactly that moment.

Deepak Chopra once wrote, "Even when you think you have your life all mapped out, things happen that shape your destiny in ways you might never have imagined." Perhaps it is those wonderful surprises in life that teach us that sometimes those plans are meant to be thrown out with the trash. Sometimes, maybe it is the unplanned, or at least the unplanned in our minds, that turns out to be better than anything we could have possibly dreamed up. Perhaps, God, or whatever higher power you believe in, had another plan, a plan that was infinitely better than what we had already set for ourselves.

So in my life, I have learned to embrace the unexpected and cherish all of those little surprises. I no longer prescribe to my eloquently devised life plan, because frankly, it really sucked. I much more enjoy the plans that God has devised for me. I also trust the power of the universe and the realization that nothing in life is coincidental. Eli Khamarov wrote, "The best things in life are unexpected-because there were no expectations."