There’s an old saying to the effect that life is what happens to you while you were expecting something else. In today’s reflective writing workshop, we focused on dealing with the unexpected.
The first writing exercise was to write for ten minutes about one or more unexpected events that have made a difference in your life, whether good or bad.
Another way to think about how we deal with the unexpected would be to write three pieces of advice that you’d offer to someone else on the basis of your own experience of dealing with the unexpected.
Finally, one or more of these quotations may spark thoughts about the role of the unexpected in our lives:
“Nearly all the best things that came to me in life have been unexpected, unplanned by me.” — Carl Sandburg
“Would you like to know your future? If your answer is yes, think again. Not knowing is the greatest life motivator. So enjoy, endure, survive each moment as it comes to you in its proper sequence — a surprise.” ― Vera Nazarian
“No one is so brave that he is not disturbed by something unexpected.” – Julius Caesar.
“We must stop regarding unpleasant or unexpected things as interruptions of real life. The truth is that interruptions are real life.” — C.S. Lewis
