When things go wrong, think again

Today was my 13th wedding anniversary. My husband and I decided to go out on a date and my dad had agreed to babysit my girls. 

He decided to go to the grocery store and at 6:30 still wasn't back. 6:45, nope. 7PM NOPE. I kept calling, no answer. Finally at 7:30 my husband joked, maybe he's already here?? 

Sure enough he had come back and was cooking up a storm. I was so irritated. Like come on dad, you couldn't just tell me you were back (albeit late) so I could start my date? 

We finally left and got to the restaurant. We were gonna eat inside because well, evening time and bugs. But Butch said let's try to sit out side. Sure! Why not! 

We sit down and the service is sooo slow. I'm like see, this is why you don't sit outside. Right? 

About 2/3 of the way through our dinner, we hear Butch's name. He looks up, surprised to see an old friend from his school days. They were so happy to meet up, genuinely happy. Like running into your best memories. 

Butch told his friend that he had just run into his mother a few weeks back and they had the best talk, and instantly his friends face changed. I could tell something was off. His friend shared that his mother had suffered a stroke and was not doing well. 

They shared so many happy memories of their youth, and it was so cool to hear them walk down memory lane. Butch was so colorful, sharing every detail of a stealth ice cream adventure that ended in a bike accident with two broken front teeth and a ride in a strangers Porsche who was late for a flight and drove 80 MPH down town roads to get 2 scared little boys to their parents. 

After his friend left, I just kind of thought about the evening. And I realized that all the little events that happened led us to that encounter. I mean, if my dad hadn't been late, if I hadn't not realized he was home, if I had insisted that we stay inside and not eat on the patio, we never would have had this chance encounter. Two childhood friends wouldn't have had the opportunity to catch up after years and years, and Butch wouldn't have heard the news that the sweet old lady he was so excited to meet was gravely ill. 

Sometimes things happen, we get inconvenienced, we miss our train, we miss our flight, we are late to dinner or we sleep in. We instinctually get angry, frustrated, we rush and bitch and complain. But what if instead of seeing it as something going wrong, we looked at these mishaps as fate's light touch.

There was no way tonight was a coincidence. There was a reason everything happened the way it did. And I felt blessed to learn a lesson. Shit happens in life, sometimes it means nothing, but sometimes it means something. Don't judge your mishaps, they could very well be nothing, or, they could be doorways of opportunity. 

I imagine my life will be much more peaceful with the perspective that when things don't go according to plan, something much better might be waiting for me. Life is short, don't waste your time and energy getting cranky over dumb stuff. Keep your eye on the prize, which is the experience and the journey with all the oversleeping, and missed planes.