Other Plans

“Life is what happens while you’re busy making other plans” and that sometimes truth hit me over the head yesterday in three or four different ways. Strange how it all happened on the same day and a good test for this forever-planning guy to remember when to let go and re-group. 

 

For example, I had hopes to get my new book published in time for the November National Orff Conference. But it takes a village to get a book out and it turned out most of the people in my village were too busy at the moment to meet my unrealistic deadlines. 

 

Then the annual summer Orff course suddenly had to be re-scheduled because of conflicts with our host venue’s schedule and domino-like, this bumped into other summer plans that then also had to be re-scheduled. At the end of that fiasco, I had to let one course go entirely. Oh, well.

 

When things like this happen, my impulse is to keep pushing as far to the edge as I can and then when it’s clear that the World doesn’t agree, try to let it go with grace. That can be a moment of disappointment, but also a sense of relief. I can relax about the book and it’s not as if the world is waiting on the edge of its seat for its profound life-changing and world-healing message. Ha ha! And the revised summer plans will allow me to stay in the summer house on Lake Michigan later in August without having to rush back for anything. 

 

So all is well. I have plans to return to the school where I’ve done some mentoring and teaching these past 4 years and that should be fun to be back in a class with these 8^th graders who I have worked with since 5^th grade. My plan is to bike there as I always do, but I noticed a few drops of rain. Another change of plan? Well, I’m prepared.