When Things Don't Go As Planned

It’s been over three years since we sold our home in Maine and moved full time into Kippee, our 82 sq ft camper. 

Three years since I’ve had a place to put up a Christmas tree. 

Three years since I had an oven and the means to cook a big ol’ Christmas dinner for a crowd complete with all the trimmings.

So when we moved into my Dad’s house early this year to work on his renovations, one of the perks of being in a “real house” I was most looking forward to was, of course, the holiday season.

The first thing we did upon our return from Texas (where I met my brand new infant nephew who is the cutest, sweetest, most perfect baby in the history of the entire world, in case you were wondering) was buy a tree and deck the halls. And start making dinner plans. And adding every cheesy Hallmark Christmas movie to our Netflix list.

I had PLANS for this Christmas and it included some serious holiday epicness, if I do say so myself.

And then I got the flu.

Not a little head cold that I was being melodramatic about. Not a little scratchy throat that was gone in a day or two. 

I got full-blown, knock-you-flat-on-your-ass-for-a-solid-week INFLUENZA.

Today is the first day I’ve been out of bed or without a fever since the Friday before Christmas.

Whomp whomp.

Needless to say, the epicness did not happen. Nor did dinner.  Nor did anything else that required me awake for more than 20 minutes or so for the last week.

But sometimes “them’s the breaks, kid.” 

Shit happens.

Plans are thrown out the door unexpectedly. A wrench gets thrown into the mix that you didn’t see coming.

Illness. Injury. Tragedy. Cancellations. Flight delays. Snow storms. A change of heart.

All kinds of things can send our best laid plans tumbling out the window with little to no say by us.

Sometimes the fallout is pretty minor. Missing Christmas was a bit disappointing, but really not a very big deal in all honesty. I’ll finish healing in this warm and comfortable home, and life will pick up where I left off with very little impact.

But sometimes the wrench that’s thrown crashes through things that matter deeply. Our lives are up ended, changed irrevocably. We’re forced to learn to carry things we never imagined we had the strength for.

And sometimes it falls somewhere in between.

Odds are, you’ve experienced all of these things at some point in your life. 

What did you do to adjust? How did you pivot to accommodate the change?

Sometimes we need a few minutes to let go of those plans. To perhaps grieve what was lost.

That’s okay. Take what you need.

And when we’re ready, we move forward.

Maybe the adjustment required is minimal. Maybe the adjustment is a whole “new normal.”

But eventually we must move forward, letting go of what we had planned and starting fresh.

Whether you are in business for yourself and 2019 didn’t work out the way you’d envisioned, or you’re coming into next week’s new year frustrated to be setting the same resolutions as last year, I hope you’ll look for ways to let go of those old plans. 

I hope you’ll wash your slate clean and release what needs releasing. 

We get to start anew whenever we need to. Every minute is an opportunity to begin again.

But if you’re anything like me, perhaps you welcome the ritual of a brand new year, the symbolism of starting fresh.

In the meantime, I wish you well as we relish these final days of 2019- I hope you’ll make the most of them in whatever way lights you up!