When unexpected things happen, I often get myself into a frenzy. I read something once in which the author said that when something disastrous happened, she would simply throw up her hands and cry, “Plot Twist!”
What a great way to look at things!
Nothing ever goes as planned, does it? There’s always some sort of hiccup or obstacle or like Atlantis Morrissette said, “it’s like rain on your wedding day.”
Which actually happened to me with my outdoor wedding in the mid 90s that ended up being indoors under a really ugly wagon wheel chandelier that’s in all the pictures.
Plot twist! Can only now laugh at that one.
I tried it, and it works!
Being able to roll with the punches and see each change or unexpected calamity as an opportunity has been really life changing.
I became a widow several years ago. That was not a happy plot twist. I was very angry that the author of my life decided to end that chapter so suddenly. However, as the years have rolled by, I have authored my own changes and have created my own plot twists. Ha! Take that!
It started simply enough, I decided to do a play which I haven’t done since college and remembered why I didn’t really like acting that much. For that role I dyed my hair red, and I have really loved being a redhead compared to being a blonde. I don’t know … it just feels more powerful? Wait a minute, let me say that again. I feel more powerful!
I had just moved to Taylor in a plot twist of my own creation as I moved out of the family home and decided to start life again just me and my pup. From there, the swerves came at a shocking pace. Suddenly, I’m in the middle of a pandemic, but I managed to lose over 60 pounds because of a necessary surgery that led to gastric sleeve surgery. Happy twist!
But here’s what I want to communicate, I am hoping that you will see each obstacle and each boundary or each drawer full of spoons when all you need is a knife as the chance to step out of the expected and find something fresh.
So many couples have their meet-cute stories about how something was going wrong but then they met this incredible person, and it was a very happy accident. I’ve decided that all my accidents are going to be happy from now on. OK, some of them aren’t, I get that. So maybe you could try every third problem you turn into a plot twist and decide to write the next chapter in a completely different way.
Oh, and that time I bumped into an old boyfriend last summer? Plot Twist! I married him! More on that soon!
