Enjoy, endure, survive
Dr. Beano and Dr. Last N. Class brought smiles to all three of us. April, 2014
“Would you like to know your future? If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator. So enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence — a surprise.” ― Vera Nazarian
I’ve often thought what a blessing it is NOT to know what the future holds. Jeff and I have talked about this numerous times, remembering our innocent newlywed selves and thinking “thank goodness we did not know what lay ahead of us.” That’s not to say that we have not had full, happy lives. But some of what would transpire over the next 30 years would have seemed unthinkable to us in 1980.
As Nazarian implies, the idea of being grateful for the uncertainty applies to moments as well as years. For those among us who have a hard time with unpredictable schedules and unplanned interruptions, this is a significant challenge. But I do think our days are less frustrating if we are able to absorb the minor ups and downs without having everything go according to plan.
On the day after Matt had the roughest night of his hospital stay, all three of us were in a fairly glum mood when we had a fun surprise — a visit from two hospital clowns whose magic tricks and humorous dialogue had us all laughing in minutes. It was amazing how that unexpected little treat brightened up a day that had been stormy inside and out.
I wonder whether a compassionate nurse tipped the clowns off that we could use a bit of cheer. Or maybe they showed up in answer to an indirect summons via somebody’s prayer somewhere. In any case, not knowing they were coming made it all the more delightful.
As you go about your days, I hope the thought of unknown possibilities will bring you joy rather than worry. It may take some effort and a little re-programing of our thoughts to think of the coming days and weeks in anticipation rather than anxiety. But we never know what delights might lie in store for us, interspersed among frustrations and sorrows we’re better off not knowing about in advance.
Today, I hope you will join me in feeling grateful for the blessing of an unknown future.
One year ago today:
This post was first published seven years ago today. The original post, comments and photo are linked, along with two other related posts, below. These links to related posts, and their thumbnail photos, do not appear in the blog feed; they are only visible when viewing the individual posts by clicking on each one. I have no idea why, nor do I know how they choose the related posts. That’s just the way WordPress does things.
- Posted in: Uncategorized
- Tagged: adaptability, anticipation, expectation, flexibility, future, happiness, joy, living in the moment, motivation, past, presence, surprises, unexpected, ups and downs, worry
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