“We must be willing to get rid of the life we planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” ~ Joseph Campbell
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We are all designers and if I have learned anything in my 45 years on this revolving orb of surprises it is that life never goes according to our intricately drawn plans. Maybe it is the shifting tides or global warming or an ill-timed sneeze in the wrong direction that erased the lines we had drawn on our personal architecture but the structure of our life always ends up being different from what we had originally anticipated.
Somewhere between concept and construction, the lines of communication are interrupted and life continues with one plan while we are left scratching our heads looking at the original drawings and wondering what happened. Life is never exactly what we imagined. And if yours is I applaud you and you can stop reading because this will have no bearing on your perfect life.
Adapting to change is something we are all too familiar with – the capability to shift our focus and rebuild a few walls to maintain the structural integrity of our lives is of key importance. The giant eraser of fate can remove one small line in the rendering of our life and change the bones of the entire skeleton of our reality but it is how we learn to live the life that was meant for us that makes us successful. Being able to leave the old drawings behind and start building again based on the updated sketch is what life is really about.
Maybe those blueprints we so carefully drew helped to build the foundation of our life but I’m willing to bet a little something called fate is going to fill in the rest of the lines for us.
How close is your life now to what you thought it would be?
polysyllabic profundities 
Think I might be in a parallel universe, with everything slightly skewed…..
At least it makes for an interesting challenge. 😉
My life now is pretty close to what I have planned — or, rather, it is closer than it has ever been before. So I’m savoring it and not wasting a moment.
That makes me happy!
I learned about the folly of planning once the sonogram tech said, “I see two of them.”
That must have been on heck of a shock! 🙂
I jokingly stood up and started walking out of the room. My wife found it funny…later.
Thankfully she has a sense of humor!
Kind of a must being married to me
Let’s put this way: I think I started in life with trying to build a solid two-storey square house and I ended up with a kind of Alhambra…not complaining but I am still adding to it.
I love that! Enjoy each addition. 🙂
Great read, and such pertinent advice! It’s enough to say that fourteen years ago, after my first trip to Italy with my husband, I told my boss, ” I have no intention of moving to Italy!” What do they say that life is what happens while you’re making other plans? I’ve been in Italy for thirteen years now and I have no intention of moving back to SA, but I’m wiser now and will never say “never”. It took a bit of adjusting, but now we love it here. My best advice is to embrace the change and revel in new experiences.
What great proof that the eraser may be the most important tool we own. Good for you!