Everything Let Loose at Once

How many of us make plans, assume an outcome only to have it all go terribly wrong? I know I have. I learned to recognize the shift from everyday to atypical from my dad. He was the master of crisis management and Plan B thinking and I am a chip of the old block! A regular work day turned into a gummy, hardened experience as Dad discovered that his mind had been occupied while he was dressing. Everything let loose mid-morning at the office. The result was a trip home to start all over again. Who would think that a quiet horseback ride in the back country could turn into an wild gallop worthy of any Roy Rogers movie. The smell of the country, feeling one with my mount and my curiosity about what would happen if I gave him a “wee flick of the reins” produced an outcome that neither horse nor rider expected. The desire to create a beautiful Christmas manger scene went off the rails when male dogs in the area discovered the tantalizing elixir of each other’s marking scents. The resulting canine traffic jam, set against the background of the Holy Family, created a riotous result that lasted through to the following spring. Trying to instill domestic skills into a couple of tomboys was a Home Economics experiment gone terribly wrong. Those two tried the patience of any saint as they bumbled their way through sewing and cooking classes. Did the instructors survive? What ever became of the tomboys? Propelled by the desire to save money, and the underestimation of how much “junk” people can collect, resulted in a frozen, mind-numbing half-ton moving escapade during the coldest part of the winter. Lessons learned about mother nature and human nature are revealed as we travel along with the “moving crew!” We all have “if only” or “maybe I should have thought that through” times in our lives – times when everything lets loose at once. We speed off in a different direction and often encounter some of our best experiences. Many times we have the opportunity to learn something new or see a different perspective that we might never have had if events hadn’t gone wildly astray. The let loose parts of life, while surprising and wildly funny at times, are likely the best part of all.