An Open Mind

It's remarkable how many things we miss out on in life because we have a closed mind about them.

We walk around with our pre-defined workplans for our lives, key milestones highlighted, timelines defined, a narrow contingency plan for backup(not so much a contingency as a lifejacket on a plane - you hope never to use it), responsible parties outlined and duly notified of their responsibilities. We know what we like, don't like, want, don't want, need, dont need, etc. and we don't bother exploring what else is out there if it doesn't fit nicely into what we have painstakingly defined.

It's good to know what you want, what you like, what makes you happy, what makes you sad, what grinds on your nerves, who grinds on your nerves. It's good to know all these, but what room have we left for the unexpected, that one thing we 'thought' we didn't like probably because we never tried it, we thought it was too far out of our reach, too far beneath us, just not interesting ... You just never know the unexpected may surprise you and turn out to be exactly what you NEED.

The only constant thing in life is change. If change is constant then we can not constantly plan, we have to learn to adapt to what changes around us, keep an open mind for what could be, roll with the punches, and just generally experience life as it comes - without a strict workplan.

Free your mind and prepare to be surprised.

Xoxo

Holding Position

I know I have been terribly aweful with blogging, but I have had a tonne on my plate, and it appears I am not as good at multitasking as I thought (something I no doubt got from my dad)

I have done a lot more air travel than I am comfortable with lately, I am naturally quite panicy so spending time in some airbus that I still don't fully understand the physics and mechanics of doesn't really sit so well with me. Flying into MMA on Friday evening, there was a backlog of flights (I am told this is a norm for Abuja -Lagos weekend flights), so my flight along with many others had to assume the 'holding position' as we approached Lagos. For those who do not know, the 'holding position' is an oval space just above the runway where airplanes 'circle' till they are given the go ahead from the control tower to make their final descent and land. Several planes can hold position at different altitudes at the same time. 

As I sat 'holding position' in what I can only describe as a molue bus with wings, eager to just land get my luggage and begin my great weekend in Lagos, it struck me how remarkably similar this 'holding position' was to life. Many times we are trapped in a rut, frustrated by the fact that we can see where we are trying to get to, yet we continue to circle around it, unable to land when we want. 

I never sit at the window seat, but I assume that from this holding position you may be able to see other planes landing on the runway leaving you behind constrained to a metal flying bus sitting next to the profusely sweating bus conductor, your ears popping from the cabin pressure, being shaken from place to place with turbulence (I doubt that at that altitude there is turbulence, but for the sake of this post let's assume that there is), freezing from the low temperatures on board, etc etc. I think I have painted a good enough picture there, the point I am making here is that life too is much like this. While we are weathering our storms, holding our position till finally it is our turn to land, we can see others landing in the place that we too are looking to land, we get discouraged, we sometimes get jealous, angry, faint, agitated. But what we do not know is how long the people landing were holding position before they landed, what kind of turbulence they had to endure, what the conditions were on board their boeing 737, what conditions they are going to meet when they eventually land. We focuson on the fact that they are landing before us. I think we have to trust that whoever (for some it's God, others it's Buddah, some others fate - I won't push my religious doctrines on you) is in our / the control tower knows when is the BEST time for us to land. Our control tower knows what the conditions on ground are, it knows what our Boeing can handle on ground or while holding position, and the control tower will make sure that we land JUST ON TIME.  

My flight 'held position' for about 15 minutes on Friday evening, after much squirming and eye rolling we did land. Much in the same way I trust that we will all leave our holding positions and descend into our desires. 

Xoxo.