As I sit on a train to Paris, having just left Amsterdam, I’m struck by how funny the world is. If I were to personify the weird and wonderful workings of the world, I would make the world an old man, in a Disney kind of way. I would give him benevolent eyes, a hearty laugh and a twinkle in his eye. He would always have Werther’s Originals in his pocket and he would slip a pound coin into your sweaty palm when your parents weren’t looking. It appears I’ve turned the world in Santa Claus. Well, I suppose that’s not a bad thing.
But I digress.
The fact is, is that we try so desperately to control everything. We try to control where we live and where we work and who our friends are and what clothes we wear and how thin we are and what the colour of our hair is, or what the colour of our walls is but the reality is that we are so busy trying to control the small things that we absent mindedly forget about the big things. And it’s those big things that my imaginary, Santa-Claus type man bends to his own will.
I live by two principles:
1. Listen to the universe.
2. Turn up in life.
I think the reason I’m writing this now is because, for a long time, I forgot to do those two things. But, as I sit in first class on a train zipping between fabulous cities as part of my new career I realize how lucky it was that, after 5 years of succumbing to what was easy, I suddenly decided to listen to the universe and turn up in life. If I’d not done those two things then I wouldn’t be here. I’d still be stuck in a classroom, getting Repetetive Strain Injury from marking the same grammatical errors (always apostrophes and semi colons) and saying the same things (tuck your shirt in, throw your gum in the bin etc) wondering what it was like to work with grown ups.
It’s funny that we believe that we have control over our destiny. We don’t. We work with what we’re given but don’t ever doubt for a second that we are ‘given’ things. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t work hard, or try to do the best we possibly can to make things happen but in the end we have to believe that whatever happens, whether it’s good or bad, if we learn to adapt the best possible outcome will always emerge. I fully believe that.
So my message is short and sweet but honest. Even the worst moments are there to allow us to shine. Believe in the overall power of goodness. Never let the worst moments drag you down. Measure yourself by your ability to keep going and keep making good decisions even when it seems like your walking backwards through mud. And always, always turn up in life.
