Didn’t go as planned

One of my favorite quotes about life is something I’ve posted a few times before.

“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

~John Lennon, “Beautiful Boy”

I say that to myself every time things don’t go as planned.

For instance, yesterday (or Friday, if you are reading this blog later than Saturday) was one of those days. Things didn’t go as I had planned them.

I get just about every other Friday off from the full time job, alternating those with Saturdays off. Lately, my Friday plans have been to get some hiking done with the occasional geocache find and then get some of the shopping done for the week. Since the weather was supposed to be beautiful and cooler than the inferno temps we had last week, I was looking forward to it.

But since my abode is a rental, I got notice earlier this week that there was an inspection first thing in the morning. “No big deal,” I thought. “I’ll just go hiking afterwards.”

Then the sink backed up. Nothing we could do would unclog it, nor could the maintenance crew from the rental company fix it. And the plumber that was called could not be there until Friday afternoon, leaving us with no kitchen sink for a day and a half. Then, on Friday, the inspection happened more than two hours later than it was supposed to start.

I felt like my day was going to be ruined. I had already anxiously cleaned every inch of the abode. I had hoped I could get outside, even for a little bit, but that wasn’t going to happen.

But there was a silver lining to all of this. Granted, yes, I had to change my plans greatly, but I still was able to get some edits done on Heirs to the Realm, the next novel in my Portals Series, as well as read a collection of horror stories by indie author L.R.J. Allen to add to my reading goal of 60 books by the end of the year. And after it was all said and done and the plumber cleared the drain and the inspection was finished, I was able to get a run to the store anyway. On a whim and as a bonus, I opened up my geocaching app to discover there was a geocache in the parking lot and made a find! While finding the geocache, I also stumbled upon a mulberry tree and had a snack of some fresh mulberries as well.

It’s easy to make plans and then get upset when they fall apart or don’t come to fruition. It’s easy to get frustrated when things don’t go quite as planned. It’s a bit harder to see the silver linings in the falling apart. But like magic, they are there, waiting ever patiently as part of the story. So, one adventure doesn’t happen? There’s a new one waiting to be picked up and taken.

Had I gone hiking, I may have not found the mulberry tree or the new socks I picked up at the store. I would have had a different adventure for sure, but I probably wouldn’t have ticked off another book on my reading goal or had the moments I had with the cats here in my abode waiting for things to happen.

Life is indeed what happens while we make other plans, but that is part of the adventure. It’s part of the magic. It’s part of the story that we choose to keep writing, no matter what.

Keep going.

Stay magical.

Write your own story.

---

If you liked this blog post, comment below! I do return comments!

Share with others, if you dare. Subscribe to my blog for updates. Visit my “About me” page if you want to contact me.

If you wanted to see some of the fantasy works I have written, check out my Portals Series < Click the title to see it.

If you are interested in my other online endeavors, check out the drop down menu to see more.

And as always, #writeyourownstory