Tag Archives: thoughts

general-post, NaBloPoMo

Uncertainty

1 Comment

If you want to hear God laugh, tell him your plans.

You can make plans, but life is full of uncertainties. You can try to be in control, but in reality… you aren’t.

There is one thing that is a given about being married to a musician, and that is uncertainty in general. You never know when there will be a show added, making planning big things difficult. For example, this will more than likely be the first Easter my husband and I won’t spend together due to a show added on Good Friday. I felt it was certain we’d spend the day together, and instead we probably won’t. It is what is is. You also never know when a show will be canceled, making it impossible to know for sure how much money you’ll have coming in by the end of the month.

Spring is upon us, and as such the weather is growing volatile. I’m sitting here loading and reloading weather reports for tomorrow. What are the chances of tornadoes around Nashville? Will my house still be there in the evening? Will my truck be covered in hail dents? All the predictions in the world are good to have, but at the end of the day… we can’t know what is going to happen until it does.

You apply for a job. You work hard on a project. You give everything your all. However, you never really know how any of it will be received. Once again, uncertainty reigns.

What matters is how you handle the uncertainty. I don’t LIKE it, but its a fact of life. I like to prepare myself for every possibility, so I am as ready as I can be for whatever happens. Sometimes you CAN’T prepare. Sometimes life throws you a curve ball that you couldn’t have seen coming. And its in those moments you have to take it a minute at a time, and just do your best to handle it with strength and grace.

NaBloPoMo March 1st writing prompt: How do you feel about uncertainty? Is it exciting or scary? [here]

ironic musings, problem solving, rants

I don’t want to be a lemming

1 Comment

Lemming was yesterday’s word of the day for me. I just felt like I spent my day surrounded by them!

Lemming: a member of a large group of people who blindly follow one another on a course of action that will lead to destruction for all of them

It started when I had to go to the bank. As I approached an intersection, I noticed the turn-lane was unusually full. I pulled in anyway — I had to make a left up ahead — but I left about half a car-length between me and the car in front of me.

The light turned green. I noticed two cars make left turns and the rest of us… sat there. It didn’t take me long to figure out that the third car had stalled or something. I waited to see if anyone went around… nothing. Our time with green was running short and still… we all just SAT there. With a glance in my mirror, I pulled out, passed about nine cars, and suddenly became the first in line for the next left arrow.

Now, in some ways you could say that was a very “jerk” thing to do. I saw it as taking initiative. For, you see, after I did that, several other cars followed suit. I refused to just stare at the car in front of me, waiting to do what they did. If I had, I’d have potentially been there at least three more light cycles!

I thought about it later and realized that I want to live my life more like how I drove today. Less “wait and see what others do” and more “taking initiative and pulling ahead of the rest.”

In the evening, I flew out of Nashville International Airport. My gate was at the verrrry end of one concourse. (Always is, right?) Gate C21, squished in with gates C20, C22, C23 and C24. Just as I sat down, it came across that they were changing my gate… to C20. I looked around and realized moving meant going maybe 10 – 20 yards. Nonetheless, about 40 people get up and move. Literally maybe three rows.

I blinked.

I snorted.

I shook my head.

I stayed right were I was, as the people around me shifted… and I suddenly found myself still sitting with flight-mates… just different ones.

Again I sighed to myself. All these people moved because it was implied they might want to do so. Not because they took any time to consider if they actually had to. (Granted there were a few people who really did need to move, because they were seated on the edge of C21 and C22, making it a fairly long distance. But on a whole, over half did not need to move. At all.)

I don’t know. I guess I get frustrated when I run into people not doing anything other than what everyone else is doing. Who aren’t thinking outside the pack and making their own path… or who aren’t standing firm and refusing to be swayed.

I want to be an individual. I want to make my own path. I want to only follow the crowd when it truly is what needs to happen… not just because its easy or implied to be “right.”

Anyone with me??

;-p