On being prepared...

There’s this part of me that desperately wants to be prepared for any situation. I tend to take too much stuff everywhere I go. My car runneth over with extra changes of clothes and maps and crayons and sippy cups and diapers and more crayons and bandaids and snacks and umbrellas and plastic bags and baby wipes and bottles of water just in case.

But still, often when a Situation arrives, I feel blindsided. For instance, it seems that I always carry an umbrella except during a storm. And it seems that I always have every map there is except for a map of the area I’m lost in. And it seems I keep at least two bottles of water with me at all times unless my children are actually thirsty. So I push my cart full of wet, giggling children through a rainy parking lot with plastic bags covering our heads and we’re okay. Or we drive until we find somewhere interesting to stop (often better than our original destination anyway) and ask for directions and we’re okay. Or we go in search of a water fountain or a cozy café or a drive-thru to get a drink and again, we’re okay and possibly happier than we would have been if I’d managed to be prepared in the first place.

So I’ve been telling myself that maybe my inability to be prepared may actually be preparing me somehow. A week or so ago, a couple of my very favorite family members were in a serious car accident. They’re okay. Or at least they will be in time. But it has sort of changed the way I look at things. Because when you think about it, there are some things in life that just happen completely out of the blue, unexpectedly, and you can’t really be prepared for them at all. Your entire world can be turned upside down in an instant. And then what do you do?

You just have to show up and hope that whoever you are is enough to stand up and handle whatever it is that’s thrown your way. You might not have the right clothes or a pen and paper or a working cell phone or even working legs. But somehow you will get through and find a way to make it work. Maybe in a completely different way than you ever imagined.

But I have to believe that somehow you’ll be okay. And who knows, in some weird way, maybe you’ll even be better off. At the very least you might learn something wonderful about yourself in the process. At least I’d like to hope so.