Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans. Oh, how true this is! The events of the past year have really driven home this idea. On a personal level we’ve had a front row seat to this sobering truth during our kitchen remodel project. We made all the preparations, had a plan, checked all the boxes and mitigated all the seeming road blocks. Then life had other plans. In one fell swoop our carefully constructed timeline came crashing down, not just once, but again and again.

The lesson was abundantly clear, we are always on life’s timeline and not our own. We can have a vision, goal or dream but the path or trajectory to that destination is ultimately out of our hands. Any illusion that we are in control is an illusion of our creation and life will quickly and often swiftly remind us of this fact. But this isn’t to say that we are helpless beings, victims of a cruel unjust world. Actually, it is just the opposite. The more we fight and resist what’s showing up, the more we stay stuck in the muck. We think we know the best path to our goal but life keeps reminding us that we need to hold our personal agendas loosely.

In our case, we realized the delays and disruptions ultimately caused us to reevaluate some decisions which resulted in a fresh perspective we hadn’t considered originally. What looked like setbacks actually helped us greatly in a multitude of ways. Has it been frustrating and disheartening at times, absolutely. Do we wish everything was completed and our life back to normal, for sure! But we have finally surrendered to the journey this project is taking us on. We decided to commit to having as much fun as possible and give up the struggle. In the end, that is the only decision we have to make – to stay stuck in resistance or to surrender.

Are we going to struggle, resist and be angry when things don’t go our way? If so, we will be miserable quite often and life will continue to feel burdensome. The alternative is to trust the timing and unfolding of life, not as random but as perfection. We can then stop trying to force our way and begin to practice the art of allowing, creating space for the Universe to work its magic. Only when we loosen the reins and stop pushing our agenda can we truly begin to enjoy the ride that life has planned for each and every one of us.