Looking Out My Back Window #35

Originally posted on Facebook HERE

The “Looking our my Back Window” post for the week is coming to you for the first time on a Monday, as the last couple days weren’t really what we expected them to be. And that can happen in life, right? We try so hard to control everything and then… life can just override our plans at any moment on any day and sometimes really throw us a curveball we weren’t expecting. We know this. We’ve seen it numerous times. Yet, how do we react? As our flight out of Mexico was delayed, then delayed, then delayed again… I can tell you how most people were reacting! They were not happy. Frustrated, angry, worried, anxious… most people had connecting flights that were now also affected. And through it all, all I could think of was a friend of mine from the 90s, Marty Straub, who was/is a fellow bass player and had a pretty popular site for bassists back then called www.basssick.com . Marty always ended any post or email with “Enjoy Whatever Happens”. Yes, we were stuck for hours in an airport with three preteen kids. But they found ways to have fun. Some of the friends they made during the week were there to play with. I got to help Arden with her homework. The other kids dad bought malts for everyone. Yesterday I was planning on taking it easy, catching up from a week off, getting ready to hit it hard at work this morning, and… life had other ideas. I had to go to Madison to get an issue resolved with the iPhone I had to purchase in Mexico because I took my old iPhone 6 into the pool with me (also not something I had planned for), and between that and grocery shopping (Laurie sent me to Woodman’s since I was heading that way – not usually my wheelhouse), that was my day. No time to do anything I had for planned yesterday, including write today’s (yesterday’s) blog. So I adjusted. And for the last two days, as everything was falling apart around me, my inner mantra was “Enjoy Whatever Happens”. Sirius/XM was rocking the 70s channel the entire drive to and from Madison. Beautiful day. I learned how to buy things at Woodman’s. I have a working phone… today I salute my friend Marty Straub for sticking the idea “Enjoy Whatever Happens” into my head all those years ago. I now hope to pass it along to you, my readers, and next time life throws you a curveball, try to see it from a new perspective. Eventually, it will become habit. I can tell you I just had a fun weekend where not that long ago I would have been angry, upset and letting it bother me into today and this week… because of things beyond my control. “Enjoy Whatever Happens” is my new mantra when life hands me a situation I wasn’t prepared for.