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| Life is full of surprises. Photo Silvija Budaviciute |
We often say and hear: the life is full of surprises, but we are not always convinced it is true. Thankfully some of those surprises help us to stop the train of thoughts and remind us to acknowledge the joys of now.
This morning my husband and I, we wanted to do something to enjoy the starting day. A park my friend recommended was closed today. We couldn’t go anywhere far as our car requires maintenance. Thus, we decide that perhaps we should take a bike ride and check the path I don’t yet know, but I was planning to take to visit my friend tomorrow. So we did.
We just started riding the bikes downhill as my husband, being slightly ahead of me, abruptly pressed the breaks. I followed with the same response and pressed my breaks…a bit too much. The rest you can imagine. In a slow motion: I am on concrete, the bike flying over me, the back wheel now touching my right arm and the whole bike finally lands on me. Unable to move and in pain, only very few things come to my mind: 1. I need to get that bike of me, 2. My knee and elbow hurt and 3. Why my husband is so serious? After the pain passed, we started to laugh; that was a salto mortale, but I am alive and nothing is broken. Just yesterday I worried about so many things, but not a single time did I think I would crash my bike. Yet, that is what happened. Isn’t that a surprise?! All my worries I thought as important yesterday were just images produced by my mind and none of them might ever become true. Yet, I spent my time worrying about them, while life kept happening and presenting its own solutions for me.
I am grateful for life for such surprises. They return my wondering mind to present. I am not saying I like such experiences (would prefer not to have a tire markings on my arm). I prefer nice surprises, but only unpleasant ones can teach you something. Today's experience reminded of the following things:
- I am grateful to be alive.
- I don’t like bad things happening to me, but I have no control over them.
- I don’t have control over good things either.
- I can choose how I respond to bad things.
- I can train my mind to respond to bad experiences with joy (Pīti in Pali).
- Both bad and good things end (some earlier, some later).
- There will always be surprises in life. I don’t use this one to depress myself that there is something lurking in a corner. Just to remind myself that we have no control over the most of the events in our lives. The only thing we can do (whatever happens) is to remember the points above (1 – 6) and choose our response.
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| Beware of a surprise behind the corner. Photo: Sergey Gerasimenko |
Talking about surprise behind the corner, as we continued our ride (now with some of my limbs slightly bleeding) we found this little fellow lurking in the shadows of a construction site.
Perhaps life is like this little creature, suddenly appears surprising and presenting itself in the most peculiar ways when you least expect it.
