“If you don’t know what you want, you’ll seldom get it. But, no matter how well you plan, you will fare better if you expect the unexpected. The unexpected, by nature, comes unseen, unthought, unenvisioned. All you can do is plan to go unplanned, prepare to be unprepared, make going with the flow part of your agenda, for the most successful among us envision, plan, and prepare, but cast all aside as needed, while those who are unable to go with the flow often suffer, if they survive.”
― David W. Jones, Moses and Mickey Mouse: How to Find Holy Ground in the
Magic Kingdom and Other Unusual Places
Many
cannot “go with the flow.” It seems too unpredictable. Some prefer a bad known,
then the possibility of a better unknown. Many of us hate change. Like the old
Hershey Bar commercial….”Change is bad…..Hershey bar the same for a zillion
years….” Change is not bad, it is
essential to humankind and the whole earth. The nature of life is to evolve.
Seasons come and go. Children grow up and out. Jobs come and then we retire.
Technology zips in and out at warp speed. Favorite shows, baseball games,
springtime romances and people end. If we are not flexible we get run over and
mowed down, or at the least, left behind. Flexibility helps us, as the old song
goes, “to roll with the changes.”
When I was a little league baseball
outfielder, one of the most helpful things I learned for the sport and life was
to keep my knees bent. This allowed me to move in whatever direction the action
taking place in.
"Blessed are the flexible for they shall not be broken." Geri
Laeder and many others (Thanks Jeff)
In general, when I look in the rear view mirror of life, I realize that most of the good things in my life are the results of change and a willing and flexible spirit. Life is not stagnant. It keeps moving on with or without us. I do know – through faith – that I am not alone in the changes. I trust there is a way the changes will fit together for good (whether I see it now or not.)
“For
I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to
prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Jeremiah
29:11
I have moved many times, have had a couple career changes, and had a number of hairstyles. Not all of it has been easy, but I have grown and learned a lot. The biggest change in my life occurred a few years ago when I got married. This change brought love, peace, joy, and comfort into my life. As a result, a new me was born—a wife and happy woman.
Today
I sit on the verge of big and small change, and am contemplating my abilities
to bend and move with it all. I am both
excited and terrified, and trying to lean into it. From past experience of change, I know that flexibility
and movement are good and important. Breathing in the spirit of life, holds
back fear.
I
am trying to keep my knees bent in all manners of speaking…..
-
to be able to move quickly in whatever direction God wants me to move
-
to get down on them to pray in whatever circumstances I find myself
-
to not cut off my air flow and faint (ask any groom who locked his knees!)
-
to keep the options open
Things that help my flexibility –
Praying Breathing
deeply Observing
creation
Laughing, Hugging
or loving someone Dancing
Petting a soft cuddly animal Drawing
or rather, coloring Gardening
“Men are born soft and supple; dead they are stiff and
hard... Thus whoever is stiff and inflexible
is a disciple of
death. Whoever is soft and yielding is a disciple of life.” Tao Te Ching
Be a disciple of life. Keep those knees bent!
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