The story is told that Gracie Allen, popular comedienne in the 1940s, received a small, live alligator as a gag. Not knowing what to do with it, she placed it in her bathtub and then left for an appointment. When she returned home, she found a note from her housekeeper that read: “Dear Miss Allen: Sorry, but I quit. I don’t work in houses where there is an alligator. I’d a told you this when I took on, but I never thought it would come up.”
Often when something unexpected suddenly happens in our life we throw up our hands in despair. Unexpected surprises tend to throw a monkey wrench into our daily schedule, and we think we just can’t deal with it. I have a tip for you: Go with the flow and have a Plan B. It’s a way of providing a safety net for our life. Sometimes the blessings we receive are perceived to be downright aggravating interruptions in life. The money we saved to buy new clothes and a pair of new shoes is suddenly needed for new shoes for the car (aka tires). It’s hard to budget for surprises, isn’t it?
Surprises aren’t always disasters. There are as many, if not more pleasant surprises in our lives as there are bad ones. Having the company recognize your hard work with a promotion and a raise would certainly qualify as a pleasant surprise.
Several years ago our daughter who lives in upstate New York contacted us with the news that she was expecting her fifth child two days before her 42nd birthday. She and her hubby thought they were through having babies and were in the nurturing mode with the four they already have. For them the prospect of having another was one of life’s unexpected surprises.
Carl Sandburg is quoted as saying: “Nearly all the best things that have come to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.”
I remember a commercial on TV that stated: “A life well lived is a life well planned.” We shouldn’t neglect making daily, weekly, monthly or yearly plans for our life. If we remember that we don’t live in a perfect world and our lives aren’t always going to be perfect, then we will be ready for those unexpected surprises.
Surprises might even take the form of a miracle. Everyday life might even be tagged as a miracle considering some of the unbelievable things that occur around us. We also have the opportunity for change when unexpected surprises happen. If we can’t change them, then perhaps we need to change the way we think about them. No one should just sit around and wait for an expected surprise to happen in their life. How we deal with the unexpected surprises in our life reveals something about our character. Does your life fall apart and turn topsy-turvy, or do you just make the best of the unexpected surprises as they happen and work out a solution?
We shouldn’t allow “alligators in the bathtub” to throw us for a loop. Interruptions, surprises, and miracles happen every day to someone, somewhere; even to you and me. Sometimes we just need to be still long enough to recognize them.
Daughter and family welcomed their “cute little elf” on that Friday evening several years ago. Back then, if I lived in a perfect world I would have been in New York rocking my new grandson. That would one of my life’s very pleasant unexpected surprises and miracles.
Email Betty Heath at begeheath690@aol.com.
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February 27, 2022 at 09:25PM
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Betty Heath: Surprises can be miracles - Longmont Times-Call
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