Are You Ready to Change Your Plans?

siride March 20, 2022

Bower Hill Plantation, West Bretton. These gates were to the Bretton Estate. There are plans to change the designation of this footpath to a road. Bellavista Plantation to the left (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

We must be willing to get rid of the life we've planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us."

-- Joseph Campbell,

American writer and mythologist

One of the biggest problems with planning ahead is that there are always forces lying in wait to screw things up for us. It might be the weather, a health crisis, or some other unforeseen thing that broadsides us unexpectedly. Back-up plans are always advised, but sometimes there is nothing else we can do other than accept what has come our way and adapt in order to continue on with our lives.

The alteration of little plans is inconsequential to us. It's those big expectations that we formulate in our minds--plans for schooling, career, marriage, and family. Dreams can be dashed or they may fade away, but when those dreams have become plans and expectations we stride forward toward the goals we envision. When a roadblock is put in our path, we have to make decisions. We might even have to change our precious plans.

Using marriage as an example, most who sincerely go into this union are unlikely to do so with the expectations that it will be dissolved in some matter of time. The typical couple will probably declare a love for one another and, if traditional vows are recited, will declare that love to the world as well as the intention to continue that love until death separates the two.

Over time people change and attitudes change accordingly. There are times when the relationships are unable to weather those changes and the plans that were made or mentally assumed are disrupted. Or even death can intervene to wreck the life that we were planning for the future. A true permanency of human relationships is not something we can always count on. No matter how strong our own sense of commitment might be, we might not be able to do anything at all to make things right as we see what we think should be right.

The examples in marriage can be applied to any other plans. Your job. Your educational pursuits. The aspirations of fulfilling your dreams. We cannot write our lives in words that hold any guarantees. Our lives are written with words of hope and not promises. Change can come at any time in our lives and the inevitability is that life will change--everyday, sometimes in imperceptible ways and at others with feelings of catastrophic doom.

We can't change where we've already been, but we can make route adjustments if the road is blocked or our destination is changed. If we don't keep moving forward then we aren't going anywhere.

I'll be frank about my promotional intentions. This post is a clue hinting toward my song choice for my Battle of the Bands post this coming Saturday November 15. I'll admit that the song I'm using will be no piece of cake to guess, but the perceptive reader might be able to guess, especially anyone who knows this song I'll be using. Here's another big hint: The album the song originally comes from is named after a city.

Do you agree with Joseph Campbell's quote? Are you a person who easily lets go or do you tend to fight to the finish even if the battle seems hopeless? Can you guess the song I'll be using in my next BOTB post? The artist?

Tomorrow November 13th! Big announcement at the A to Z Blog!
Be sure to visit a-to-zchallenge.com tomorrow and everyday!