Imagine if you came across this advertisement for a seven day beach vacation:
- 3 days only at the beach
- Torrential downpour
- Flat tire
- Kids argue and complain
- Awkward dinner
- Episode of severe vertigo
- Foul smelling water
Would you be so quick to sign up for such a trip?
Is this your idea of a relaxing getaway?
I would venture to guess that the answer for most people would be “no”.
Yet all of this happened on my most recent trip, the same trip we now discuss with smiles and fond memories.
Why is it that we can make all sorts of grand plans and have all of these ideas of how things should go, but it’s often the things that we didn’t plan that stand out the most and end up being the most memorable.
One of the most memorable moments of my wedding day was totally unplanned. After our outdoor ceremony and before the cocktail hour and reception, someone from the forest preserve came by on a golf cart and took my new husband and I on a ride all around the gorgeous property while strangers waved and cheered at us and we smiled and waved back. I planned a million small details for that day, but not that one.
On my recent family trip, a torrential downpour surprised us during dinner. We planned to go to another place for a special dessert, so in a brief lull of the storm we took our chances. We ran through the outdoor mall and parking lot, hid underneath covered patios along the way, only to enter the new place completely drenched from head to toe and laughing hysterically at how ridiculous we looked when we walked in and faced all the people looking at us like we were nuts as we grabbed paper towels to wipe our dripping faces and feet. We spent the next week laughing about that night and at the crazy photos and videos from that experience.
We plan the perfect vacation, the perfect wedding, the perfect dinner, the perfect weekend, but then nothing goes as planned.
Some things turn out better.
Lots of things turn out worse.
Either way, it’s those unplanned surprises that stay with us long after the experience ends.
We can resist the unexpected or we can embrace it.
We can be disappointed or we can make the best of it.
We can laugh or we can cry.
We can be bitter or we can be grateful.
We can be joyless or joyful.
Which is it going to be?
Life is always 50/50.
We often feel like the scale is tipped far more to the negative side, because we get upset about the negative parts. We resist the negative fifty. We add on a layer of dirt to the dirt underneath, so it feels so much heavier.
There is no rainbow without the rain.
– mindful doc mom
What if we just expected that sometimes there will be rain during our beach vacation or a broken down car or illness that keeps us from our plans?
What if we also knew that for everything that goes wrong, there will be something amazing that happens that we weren’t expecting, that we couldn’t have planned, that we didn’t even know could exist?
What if we lived our life with the knowledge that it will be equal parts amazing and awful?
How freeing would that be?
What if we read that beach vacation ad and still signed up because we knew that it was only half the story?
What is 50/50 in your life right now? What is amazing? What sucks?
What are some of your best memories that you never planned?
Let me know by commenting below.
