Originally posted on Facebook HERE
One thing I think I’m getting a lot better at as I age is “rolling with the punches”. Life will always send you something unexpected. Often, we get news that isn’t very exciting to hear. Someone cancels a meeting that you took hours to prepare for. Or, like last night playing with the band – those of you in bands know that playing a show has many, many things that could go wrong, right? Right. It was a multi-band show, so we had limited time to setup and sound check. And we couldn’t get my iPad to connect to the in-ear system. I figured out the problem, but by then it was just minutes until showtime. So it wasn’t going to be fixed in time to use it at all. I had to go without in-ear monitors. I had no idea what to expect as far as what I would be able to hear without them, but… you gotta roll with it, right? We don’t take breaks, so I knew there would be no “fixing it during the break”, either. I wouldn’t have them for the entire show. That type of thing used to just piss me off when I was younger. I remember once – way back in the days before there were tuners available for musicians – I asked the keyboard player in the band I was in for a G – he gave me the note, I tuned my bass and got ready for the next set… and the note he gave me wasn’t actually a G. He hit the wrong key when he gave me the reference note. We started playing and I was way out of key. So… did I just figure it out and transpose to the note he gave me?… nope, I got pissed off and walked offstage. Man… not a great memory for me, but it does show me how far I’ve come in that regard. When something unexpected happens these days, I’m not so quick to overreact. I just wonder what’s going to happen from here, you know? God has a plan I haven’t been made aware of yet. And everything always works out for me. But. I truly believe that everything always works out for me, too – so when bad things happen I seldom just blow up anymore (there still are some exceptions, I think) – instead, my inner self-talk goes right to – “I wonder where this will lead?”… and it almost always winds up being something that serves me. Often, the situation resolves itself in a way that’s way better than if I hadn’t had an issue in the first place. But I do believe that we see what we believe. I truly believe everything always works out for me, so that’s what I see. Have you seen the “We’ll See” parable? It’s awesome, and a great way to look at the challenges we are faced with throughout our lives. May all your challenges be countered with successes of equal or greater magnitude today. You’ll see it when you believe it…
