Let Life Surprise You…
A year and a half ago, I felt utterly compelled to paint a sunrise and display these four little words over it on my bedroom wall. They stumbled into my life via Pinterest whilst I was mindlessly scrolling through and upon reading them, I stopped. The words echoed through me. Echoing as though they would be significant to me at some point in the future. At this point in my life, I had just hit my personal rock bottom. Everything I had wanted, hoped and expected for myself had been ripped from my grasp. No point of return. And yet… these four little words sung out of the page at me. Let Life Surprise You. I kept thinking; this isn’t me. I just don’t put quotes up, let alone paint them myself. It felt a bit, ‘Live, Laugh, Love’ I won’t lie and I was reluctant to display it at first. But it’s amazing how these words have served to humble me in the past six months.
When I painted these words, I was living in a mindset that craved complete and utter control in all aspects of my life. I thought that there was only one way for me to obtain happiness, only one person that I could possibly spend my life with, only one path. And that path, that doorway, had been brutally shut in my face. I didn’t want surprises; I wanted that path, and I wasn’t going to be happy without it.
I spent months, almost a year, fighting the flow of the universe. I refused to see how what had happened to me was in any way going to serve my future self. My mindset was blinkered and, due to this stubborn insistence on things happening MY way, so were my options. The world around me was a closed door. The universe had given me a complete and utter full stop, and no matter how hard I tried to fight it, it was a battle I never won.
This forced pause was to be a pivotal point in my life. With my world as I knew it crumbling away at my feet, I had no choice but to begin to look within. I started asking myself ‘why?’ and began to slowly pick up the pieces of my broken heart. The moment I got curious about healing and accepted my situation rather than fighting it, the flow started to return into my life. As I reached out for help in one direction, support and guidance came in unexpected but beautiful ways. As I gave in and looked within, new doors began to make themselves known in front of me. Life was, indeed, beginning to surprise me.
What’s so funny is that you have no idea about what is just around the corner for you. You think you know what’s best for you, you think you have your best interests at heart but you can’t see the bigger picture. You haven’t got all the steps – you can’t see the chess board, the moves that have yet to be played. I truly believe that spirit, the universe, God, whatever you want to name it, have that knowing. They know, truly and completely, what is best for you and the most aligned direction for you to take. If my life had played out exactly as I had expected, exactly as I had wanted it to, there is no way I would be as fulfilled as I am today.
So, if like me, you’re currently frustrated and crying out profanities at a closed door, let me offer you four little words: Let Life Surprise You. I hope you are as delighted by what awaits you as I have been.
In fact, I know you will be.
