What Did You Expect??

I have come to the conclusion that events, actions, and situations are not the things that empower, change, or hurt us. While they may seem to overtake our normal, everyday lives..we tend to give these things more credit than they deserve. Whatever it is that may be or occur, it is not the power of those things that shapes our reaction, it is the ill preparedness we have undertaken leading up to "it".
   
    It really doesn't matter who gets sick or who passes (sheds tear lost some family recently) or what someone said/did or the impact of natural disaster, the truth about it is we should have known and been ready for it. Don't believe me? Hmmmph. Tell me in what category do the statistics tilt in your favor. I don't want to get into a lot of numbers because it doesn't take all that so follow my thinking if you will. Do you think that if you continue to drive that you won't have an accident? Did you believe that when your child was born that they would never get sick? How about when you joined that church, did you think that it was going to be drama free? Did you really think your marriage would last? Did you think that with all of your vitality that you wouldn't get older or sick? Did you think the authoritative forces in your life would live forever? When you bought that house did you honestly believe that it would never be challenged? I could ask those questions forever and the answers to them would probably be similar if not the same.
           
    In our quest to be happy most of us fail to prepare for the worst. Pessimistic...no. Realistic...no. Those are glass categories that actually mean nothing in the grand scheme of things. How about prepared. Yes. That is the category we should be trying to be cast in. Not prepared in the sense of a prenuptial agreement or insurance (home/health) but prepared mentally for everything to go in the direction away from what we want. For some uncanny reason when I actually find myself saying, "I knew that was going to happen..", it just seems to not be so bad. I have come to realize that in those times, even though whatever it is may be horrible, I have prepared myself by controlling my expectations. That does not mean that disappointment doesn't come-a-knocking, nor does it mean that I don't recognize disaster. What it does mean is that based on my expectations part of me has already prepared itself to come up with a contingency plan.
         
   Let me explain...for whatever happens, its only a problem, failure, or serious issue when placed in direct comparison to the ideal. If I go out right now and total my car (that would be TRAGIC!!!), I do know that at some point and time I will probably get into a horrible accident..(praying the one I was in was the only 1). But honestly, the odds of me never having another accident would make me bet against myself. Likewise the odds of maintaining or holding on to anything I admire, want, or need would have me placing the same bet. This is not an attempt to bring myself down or anything, just to say ok it's 11 eggs in this basket let me put at least one somewhere else.
 
   So the next time it rains in your life, or someone hurts you, or you are let down ask yourself this one question....what did you expect??