One of the things I’ve always found to be rather unbelievable is when I read about people having epiphanies and everything becoming crystal clear in a moment. Maybe I don’t believe it because that certainly isn’t how my life has ever worked. I learn all of the life lessons that I possibly can, but it is a process.
I have now come to a point in my life where I have given up on “Aha!” moments and have opted for paying attention to the little things in order to extract what kernels of wisdom that I can.
Recently, I’ve found myself saying, “This isn’t really what I’d planned on,” both to myself and to others. I can assure you, dear readers, that my life is good but I can also assure you that I wouldn’t have been able to imagine its present state even five years ago.
I finally noticed that I was saying and thinking it a lot — especially in the last week — and that was helpful. I decided to try and figure out if there were any iceberg warnings for the Good Ship Kruiser that would have indicated things were going to go awry.
My divorce was definitely not in the plan — I waited a long time to get married in the hope of avoiding that. But that was a long time ago. There have been other plans since then. I haven’t just been wandering about the planet, hoping a golden goose would crap some good fortune on me.
I began to reminisce about plans big and small since the divorce that have run off a cliff, and after a lot of that, I began to think about how I reacted and/or adapted. Sooner or later, I always end up fine. So what do I care if the road I’m on gets bumpy and knocks me onto a side road?
Something occurred to me after all of that, but I won’t call it an epiphany because of the painstaking and emotional thought process that led to it. I would prefer an epiphany to be effortless, thank you.
Anyway, here it is:
The secret of life is learning to embrace the fact that nothing ever goes according to plan.
And beer.
— SFK (@stephenkruiser) July 7, 2021
OK, threw in the beer thing on a whim.
When you accept that your plans are going to run off the rails then, paradoxically, all of your plans go exactly according to plan.
Dude…deep, right?
Sometimes they don’t work out for the best. I had never planned on doing stand-up. Leaving college to go on the road and tell jokes was never in any plan of mine or my family’s. That plan gone rogue led me all over the world and to my daughter’s mother.
And to this moment.
I will take the win.
I have to go plan dinner now.