“We must be willing to let go of the life we planned so as to have the life that is waiting for us.” 

― Joseph Campbell

A quiet and happy tornado is forming in my life. A swirling crescendo that I am riding, while trying to decipher the music I’m hearing. It’s not a doom & gloom tune, nor is it a peppy & happy one. It feels like a melody of promise, like when the heroine of the story is onto something. She’s heading in the right direction and the music builds in an encouraging and playful way. That’s my soundtrack today.

Joseph Campbell’s quote (above) appeared again today in my thoughts, as I reflected on the last week’s developments. I’m still trying to let a daily routine fall into place, but each day a new setback to predictability arises. Today my Monday momentum was interrupted per se by hosting my husband for lunch. His work campus is close enough, so occasionally he pops home to dine and relax. Today was one of those days. A brief pause for me to care for him and for us to visit, but now I’m left trying to recall the momentum I felt before lunch. As I’m doing that, I’m remembering to own the path that my life took today rather than lamenting over what I lost or what direction I headed in that found me strayed from my morning intentions.

I think that’s where my power lies, in the ability to accept and welcome the uninvited pivots.

My husband’s lunch visit isn’t a bad thing, rather it was lovely, but an interruption to my daily flow nonetheless. I say that I don’t want a purely loosey goosey schedule. That I crave a routine, but as I sit with my feelings this afternoon, I recognize that my delight today is in my acceptance of the hiccup. I found my way to writing again after my morning’s word-based projects and after this short blog post, I will continue my momentum and contribute more growth to my ever stabilizing book.

Someone once told me in order to be considered a “writer” that I must spend four hours a day immersed in the act of writing. I dispute that and liken it to having a bikini body. If I wear a bikini, I have a bikini body, regardless of if anyone else sees me as currently “fit” or able to pull off a bikini. I am a writer regardless of whether or not I fit into someone else’s expectations about my commitment or progress. I write therefore I am.

Expectations are tricky. If we don’t anticipate them, they will catch us off guard. If we stick to them, we can suffocate our happiness. If we eliminate them completely from our lives, we may feel untethered, but maybe that’s the point? To live the life that we are supposed to live, rather than the one we are tethered to by goals and hope. The life that emerges from skirting rigid confines, rather than the life we force to unfold. For me, that’s where joy and success lurk, in the untethered-ness and freedom to let my life emerge like a butterfly from a cocoon. Metamorphosis isn’t a finite act, it’s constant in humans.