As human animals, we have a unique habit of projecting ourselves into the future. An amazing trick really. We are trained to imagine ourselves in the future, yet can shape our lives in the present, according to our new direction.
We are all very capable of seeing this new, majestic future, so clearly, emerging just over the horizon, and anticipate its glorious days of tomorrow. We use our imagination for that very purpose. We see what tomorrow brings, and excitedly push and pull the present moment, hoping to submit the future into reality.
We try really hard.
We think hard. We feel deep. We work. We learn. We toil.
We cross our t’s and dot our i’s. We purchase insurance. We invest. We save.
Yet life makes other plans.
Life happens when we are busy making other plans.
This used to frustrate me to no end. This frail inability of mine, to conjure up my future into reality, had become a tenacious source of remarkable confusion.
The future seemed so coy. To playfully peek and smile around every corner, only to disappear, and hide itself from my sight.
I could touch it. Feel it. Taste it even. It dripped from my tongue, like honey from an overproducing hive, in a bulging honeycomb, ready for the cold days of winter.
Yet, it was not meant to be.
And yet, I’ve been better for it.
I’m not sure why we are here and our illustrious human history doesn’t help.
It seems to be nothing more than a stark reminder of the inhumanity of one person to another. Endless arguing. Endless fighting. Theft. Indecency and indignity. We seem a long way from discovering our purpose and direction in life, with very little progress to come.
Seem.
But no matter.
Human history doesn’t define us. Life does.
We draw our dignity from every rising sun and every harvest moon. From the end of things, and the joy of new beginnings.
Life humbles us.
It helps us to stay balanced and not feel too high or too low. Too comfortable or too dejected. Too wise or too ignorant.
Life happens when we least expect it.
All our seemingly unsolvable problems eventually disappear. End. Vanish. One way or another. And we always give birth or adopt new ones. We embrace a tomorrow that always comes with new joys and a series of challenges.
Life is worth living.
It’s glorious.
Unbridled. Unpredictable. Untamed.
Life becomes worth living when you let go and see it for what it is, and embrace it as it comes.
Behold all of it.
It its totality, not its unnatural broken parts.
See it for its glorious totality, and don’t subjugate it into made up fractions and meaningless pieces.
Life happens to us when we are making other plans.
This doesn’t mean you should stop imagining or avoid making other plans.
It simply means that tomorrow will not be like you imagined.
You can’t prepare for it and you should accept it when it comes.
Leap forward. Don’t resist it. Come at tomorrow with an open heart and an open mind. Be ready to turn that corner.
Life peaks at you, so you can chase after it.
It’s a perpetual childlike game of tag.
The point is not to win.
The joy is that we get to play again.
