Best Laid Plans..

I just had a terribly scary experience which in retrospect now seems comical. You know the rolling-eyes-will-find-this-funny-in-ten-years funny? I just wanted a couple of things to fall into place at a particular time and well I just realized that when someone very "consistent" is involved, it is highly unlikely that things will go as planned. Nothing life threatening really, just a few hiccups in a seemingly simple procedure. No point harping on it especially since I can't do so. At least not here.

What I HAVE learnt is that sometimes the best laid plans get messed up. Most delicately planned, down to the last intricate detail, eagerly looked forward to.. all kinds of plans are waylaid and tossed aside. A very wise man who wrote an excellent book called "What makes you not a buddhist" said, this is the rule more than the exception. The most basic principle to be remembered is "Everything in this universe is compounded". Each and every thing that you see on this planet, can be broken down into its assembling components. Moreover, a specific set of circumstances and people coming together at a specific time has allowed that entity to be assembled. Take something as simple as a cupboard. It is made of nuts, bolts and planks of woods. If you take a single bolt, it is made of steel which was pressed into that precise shape by several machines. I can go on and on. If any one of these parts was not present, there would probably not be that cupboard. Or maybe a different cupboard. It is mind boggling to think about the alternatives. And here we are, hoping that things will go exactly as decided by our fanciful whimsical minds! Seems like a 1 in a million chance? You bet it is!

This does not mean that we should never make any plans or be pessimistic about the future. Plan. Plan by all means and with all the good intentions of your heart. But if something does not work out, you should be objective enough to not feel like your whole life has come crashing down. Most often than not I've noticed, when something doesn't go as planned, there is either a very important lesson to be learnt or something much better waiting to happen. The lesson has been learnt, now waiting to see the silver lining in this dark cloud...