EXPECTING THE UNEXPECTED

Recently I was thinking about the upcoming Christmas and New Years celebrations and how most of us will again be seeing our friends and family members. Many of us still send out Christmas cards, most of us make an extra effort to see each other in person if we can as well.

I noticed this year that people seemed to be less organized than usual and having a much harder time fitting everything in. For example, I met friends on the other side of the city well over an hour later than I expected to, last Friday, and again on Sunday. Because my friends were very busy themselves, this actually worked out better on Friday than expected. We also postponed an additional thing we thought we might do together because they had plans a few hours later and several additional errands to do in between.

On Saturday, Toronto got hit with a major snow storm which became a problem with a quarter of a million people without power and heat. Some are still having to resort to shelters. Some people may be effected by this until the New Year. The streets were, ice rinks in many places. Many tree branches broke because of the weight of the ice on the branches. Though lovely to look at, getting anywhere can easily become dangerous. In more than one place, tree branches and ice covering streetcar lines put transportation in several areas out of service.

What is one to do when a pileup of events beyond your control slow you down or put you seriously behind your schedule? What do you do when something comes into your life that demands you alter your plans completely?

In cases of illness, I think our bodies are actually sending us a message to slow down, lighten up and start taking better care of ourselves. When nature throws us for a loop, we are forced to work around it and adjust our schedules to allow for unexpected delays that are beyond our control.

I may be stating the obvious, but particularly with illness, you either are 'out of commission' and/or must rest to recover. When unexpected natural events occur, you can adapt and reschedule or allow more time in order to get things done. 

Both illness and storms can effect our schedules and slow us down somewhat. What I suggest however, is that we pay attention to such occurrences and

use them as an opportunity to slow our pace down to what is manageable under the circumstances. After the event, we might make a few plans for future unexpected events by taking a few safety precautions particularly relating to power outages, so that we might cope better in future.

In the midst of the event however, not only is attempting to treat everything as if it is normal not possible, but it is not sensible either. Often we will be better off to acknowledge and accept we will not be able to do as much as we usually would. By accepting this, we will find we are able to prioritize and adjust to what it possible under the circumstances. We can then actually accomplish most of what we need to do, while arriving at our destination calmer and more relaxed because we have already adapted to what can be done.

Wishing you all a safe, happy and relaxed Christmas holiday and hoping most of us will still be able to ring in the New Year with the weather cooperating a little more.