Even when our plans get off track, we are always right where we are supposed to be. Do you believe that?
Sometimes, no matter how much we prepare, we end up somewhere different than we planned to travel. Life's Big Adventure Bus takes an unexpected swerve down a side road and we are left staring like spooked travelers out steaming windows, chasing the scenery for road signs, fumbling for our GPS.
Or maybe we had everything to do with the unexpected bend in the road. We forgot to change our clocks; or we had the wrong day; or we were detoured by our own clumsy mishap and found ourselves following blinking arrows, trying to find our way back to the road we planned on taking.
I know you know what I am talking about -- it seems to happen almost every day, right?
I see our daily experiences playing out like rows of dominoes, falling down in lines, sometimes staying the predicted course -- other times taking a spotted turn we did not see coming, and toppling over carefully placed schedules, with an ongoing, purposeful clicking and running that continues as life unfolds. Each domino -- each experience -- affects and lays trails with all of the people and happenings that it connects with and with every person and event that they connect with, and so on.
We interact and interchange, often disrupting this wonderfully intentioned thing we tightly grasp: "Our Plan." (Ha.) We each hold Our Plan tucked up under our arm like a prized game ball, believing it is just the lucky piece we need to get us across life's goal lines. And while sometimes people mean to tackle us right off our feet (argh), we are usually tripped up by innocent circumstances that were in no way meant by a fellow teammate to bump us left. But they do.
And you can be sure that a Higher Power is making sure that it all happens -- on purpose.
Each happening, pause, conversation, appearance, cancellation, engagement, occupied space and bump affects everything and everyone else it touches, spreading out like giant, trickling, purposeful trails of touches, influencing the timing, mood, energy and interaction of all the others.
What can we do about it? Here's my pitch:
Do your best to achieve your goals, show up on time, and meet the expectations of your life. Make a plan, seek guidance and use your talents and walking shoes to get you to the destinations that are awaiting your arrival. It just might happen exactly the way you envision. (Ha.)
However, when Your Plan gets redirected -- instead of stewing in a piping hot bowl of anger, take a deep breath and create a space of acceptance around you, letting yourself sink into pillows of peace with the knowledge that you can be in on this. too.
Consider these Possibilities of Purposeful Place:
•You (or someone else) are being protected from harm by being held up for two seconds, two minutes, or two days. Maybe that someone is the child next to you or the loved one that needs to wait on you.
•The Divine has something more important for you to learn, to witness or to experience than arriving at your preplanned destination on time.
•You are being given the gift of "alone time" to reflect on or pray about something that needs to be purposefully considered.
•There is someone that the universe wants you to meet (or not meet), and your redirection will make sure that happens for the reason it is meant.
•You need to be a part of a conversation that won't happen unless you are in an exact place at an exact time. You will change a life -- maybe your own.
•That achievement, front row seat, or once-in-a-lifetime connection needs to go to someone else for now because it will change the direction of their life (and their family's life) in ways you cannot imagine. Something better for you is on its way.
•Your life is going to change in never-before-imagined ways because of the opportunity that you are about to receive -- which never would have happened on Your Plan. Life's biggest surprises await.
By keeping these consideration tucked into your pocket like cool nuggets of serenity, you will bring more harmony into your life. While you hold this wisdom with gentle fingers, you will slowly release your fists' rippled clutch, along with your need to control the steering wheel -- breathing in the peaceful surrender that the universe has your best interest at heart.
So, the next time you are held up or forced to change course, here is your way to peace:
7 Steps to Accepting Purposeful Place
1. Stop, slow your reaction, and take a deep breath.
2. Reach into your soul's pocket and embrace that wisdom that is now yours: This life is about more than this moment, but this moment can change your life and the lives of others.
3. Release your natural need to control your direction, giving yourself permission to move fluidly into this unplanned space.
4. Gratefully accept the interference with your schedule as something in the grand plan of your life and in the lives of those around you.
5. Take your mind into your spirit and let go of anger. Settle into that place where peace with life's plan is resting.
6. Tell yourself that each "chance happening" is a "purposed happening." A Greater Power knows something that you do not.
7. Say "I am right where I am supposed to be," and believe it.