The other day I bought plum jam instead of strawberry jam. I didn’t notice until I opened the jar and started spreading it. It was delicious and so, a possible disappointment became a joy. This is just a small example of what happens to me on a regular basis. The expected becomes the unexpected, anticipation becomes disappointment or …… something else !
Many of us were confronted with the unexpected over recent days, when flights across Europe and America were cancelled due to a volcano eruption in Iceland. It was interesting to see the different reactions to the immoveable facts. That no-one was going anywhere, no matter who they were or how much money they had, we were all in the same predicament. My romantic break to France with my husband dissolved as did many other peoples plans, amongst them weddings, funerals and christenings.
I wonder if I am the only one who felt somehow freed by the fact that we could do nothing about this event, therefore crying, stamping, moaning and writing to your local TD were replaced by shrugged shoulders and a laissez faire attitude. There was a certain peace and a slowing in pace, just for a moment.
Our ability to control our lives is an illusion that we cling to even if it doesn’t serve us, even when it doesn’t make sense and even when it makes us sick. The more things don’t turn out as planned the more we resist and kick out at the injustice and unfairness, as though someone specific had it in for us, as though we had been selected for a particularly arduous journey. Not so, I believe that we all get our turn at the horrors and for us to believe that we have it especially hard is to disregard the suffering of the majority of the worlds population .
In this instance, money may have been lost and certainly many people inconvenienced but in the scheme of things suffering was low on the agenda. I wish there was an easy answer to why some people seem to leap every hurdle effortlessly and others struggle to find the path around, often bumping into ever greater obstacles along the way.
I believe our attitude and openness to a different outcome can mean the transformation of frustration and anger into possibility and acceptance. The more closed we are , the harder it is for life to show us what it has to offer. There have been many instances over the last weeks of the generosity and kindness of people to perfect strangers and that is really where our focus should be, on the good things that can come from the unexpected and the chance it gives us to shine.
If we believe we are alone, that many are against us, plotting and scheming and that the world is a hostile place, then that will be the reality we experience. When we believe that we are loved and the world has everything to offer, then that also creates our reality.
