A Birthday Card and a Life Lesson

I think it's a little ironic that Pam and I both celebrated our birthdays while she and Kenny were in Birmingham at the hospital. For that matter, Robbie's birthday was during that time also. Heck, if they had gone a couple of days earlier, Kenny could have had his birthday there too!

Anyway, I stayed with them several times during their five-week stay, and during one of those times Pam gave me my birthday card. Amazingly, I had looked at it in the bookstore and Pam (Sneaky Pete, I should call her) had already seen it and bought it for me! Great minds think alike, I guess!

I cannot tell you how many times I have gone back to that card and read it. There are so many life lessons to be learned from it. Life is truly about handling the things we don't expect. Everybody has youthful dreams of marrying your soulmate and living happily ever after with a house full of kids and a yard full of cars and a pool and bicycles in the driveway. No one plans in those youthful dreams what to do if a child dies or the soulmate gets sick. I guess it really is true that the situation you are in doesn't define you. It's how you handle that situation that says what you are.

Because I love it, I'm including the message from my card. I hope it touches some of you as it has touched me.

As we grow older it's important to remember that life is all about how you handle plan B.

            Plan B
Plan A is always my first choice.
You know, the one where
Everything works out to be
Happily ever after.

But more often than not,
I find myself dealing with
The upside-down,
Inside-out version
Where nothing goes as it should.

It's at this point that the real test
Of my character comes in...
Do I sink or do I swim?
Do I wallow in self-pity
And play victim
Or simply shift gears
And make the best of the situation?
The choice is mine. After all...
LIFE IS ALL ABOUT
HOW YOU HANDLE PLAN B.
                                  Suzy Toronto

Blessed are the flexible...
for they shall not be bent out of shape.

Now, really, isn't that just the neatest lesson? If you haven't already encountered Plan B, you will. Hope this helps!