💬 When was the last time life really surprised you?
💬 When was the last time life really surprised you?
Let's chat about the things you never saw coming!
Even if we’re not always aware of it, many people have a sense of how their lives will turn out. I remember being a teenager and imagining my future. I thought I’d work as a journalist and live in the suburbs with a partner and kids. These weren’t necessarily things I wanted, just how I expected my life to unfold.
Then my mother died, and all my plans for the future disintegrated. Overnight, I went from being a (mostly) carefree college student to feeling the weight of enormous family responsibility. This is often the case with eldest daughters, particularly when tragedy strikes.
On Beyond Survival, we talk a lot about trauma and what it takes to rebuild your life. Next week, I’m planning to publish an essay about a surprising decision I’ve made this year, one that is something I never pictured for myself and is asking me to stretch my expectations far beyond how I thought my life would unfold. I’m excited to share that essay with you, but before it’s published, I wanted to learn a little more about your experiences of life’s happy surprises.
So today, I’m curious about those moments when life surprised you in beautiful or expansive ways.
It could be a relationship that completely changed things for you, an unexpected career shift, or an overhaul within your personal life. It could be coming out, or expanding your understanding of your identity in some other way. It might be getting a pet or finding a new passion or discovering that, actually, you didn’t want some external thing that everyone else thought you should want.
Feel free to interpret this prompt as broadly as you like. I’ll share some of mine in the comments!
I was surprised to learn how much I would love having pets.
I grew up in the country where animals were seen as work. We cared for them, but they were a means to an end: a dog to help on the farm, a cat to keep the mice away, livestock that would eventually be sold.
When I moved in with my partner, I got two new feline room-mates and I've been pleasantly surprised to learn that I love both having pets and doing the work of caring for them. They are tremendous company during long days at my desk. They're a constant reminder to rest and be more embodied. And, petting or playing with them is the best anxiety/stress reliever I've ever experienced.
Yes, I do have to clean up their shit. But it takes 5 minutes a day and the rest of the time, they are a joy to be around. I love this line from Jean Cocteau: “I love cats because I enjoy my home; and little by little, they become its visible soul.”