Just Go With The Flow

READY8 “I've just sort of gone with the flow and I ended up here. Crazy. I'm not going to start planning anything, my life is way better than anybody could have planned it.” ~ Rachael Ray

AIM8 So I’m a day and a half late with my message because Mother Nature threw me a curve ball on Monday. My children had President’s Day off from school and so we decided to drive about two hours north to visit my mother who had surgery last week. We arrived just after lunch and it began snowing as we walked into the house. I kept watching the snow out of the window and fidgeting because it was getting heavier and wasn’t letting up. We didn’t anticipate snow when we decided to visit, nor did the weatherman tell me that I would need to be concerned about the driving conditions. Well, the snow didn’t stop for the next nine hours and my parents ended up getting around ten inches of snow! Needless to say, driving home was out of the question. Our normal two hour drive would not only be treacherous, but would certainly take double or triple the amount of time to arrive home. So the kids and I decided to be safe and stay the night; we would wait out the snow storm until morning. Thankfully, my children had a teacher in-service day scheduled for Tuesday so getting home for school wasn’t a pressing issue.

Once the decision to stay was official, we proceeded to take a deep breath, relax and make the most of our visit to Grandma and Grandpa’s house. Our curve ball allowed us to embrace some quality time with our family. We enjoyed a home-cooked lasagna dinner together at the dinner table. We watched an action-packed movie together. We played a hilarious family game. We just enjoyed spending time in each other’s presence. Yes, we didn’t have our toothbrushes or pajamas; however, I am thankful to have resourceful parents who shared all their amenities, their clothes, their food and even their medicine for my kids.

When life doesn’t go as planned, what do you do? Do you embrace the moment and go with the flow or do you whine and complain about your change in plans? We may not always understand why things happen, but we can choose to make the most of a crazy situation. You will most often find that when you look back on those circumstances, if you go with the flow, you’ll recall those situations with a smile and not with regrets.

By the way, we made it home safely. We didn’t have any road condition issues on Tuesday and we all felt fully loved by our family.

FIRE!8 Embrace the moment! Whatever happens today, pause, take a deep breath and just let yourself go with the flow. You’ll be less stressed and perhaps, you may even have a positive experience to smile about!

Be Excellent!
Lori