Joy Turn

Life, as they say, turns on a dime.  And that phrase simply means that anything can make a radical change in direction very quickly.

It's essential to be prepared for these pivots as they arrive when we're least expecting them.  For the good or the bad, our reactions can turn them into something far worse or better than we ever thought we deserved.

Plotting my life plan means building space for these situations.  The allowance that age has given me is the ability to predict what my reactions will be...to a loss, a gain, or simply life as the mundane.  I find myself no longer paying attention to time as the grid for my daily routine.  It passes.  My previous attempts at controlling its march have ended poorly.  Now, I check for appointments but I don't stress about my preparedness for them.  It comes.

Since I'm not taxed with the routine of a 9-5 job, I have room for this life outlook.  Having once been in the daily grind chaos, I know not to be glib about "successfully achieving" a more organized and fulfilling life.  It fails.

Humans under stress adapt to their situations and spend countless hours responding to the turning dime of life...and all in the name of survival.  They feel the need to make a living a certain way, to have a family in a traditional sense, and to consider their dreams as subsidiaries to their realities.

Deep in many of our souls a flame stays lit though.  Hope for a better "turn" of our circumstances keeps us plodding along familiar paths.  We're imbued with light regardless of how dark it may seem.  It exists.

Today I feel a pivot of joy and in so honoring it, I won't concentrate on its short lived stay.  I'm prepared now to enjoy it for its appearance and that will be enough.  It must be enough.

The happiest people around the world are those with the least expectations of it.  They keep them low and live mindfully in the moment.  They aren't necessarily deep thinkers, they just live deeply in the moment.  Hope lives.