Birthday Plans Gone Awry

The heat index is over 100 again. It’s about the same everywhere in the Continental United States except in San Francisco, of course – where Samuel Clemens once said, “The coldest winter I ever spent was summer in San Francisco.”  I can’t remember heat this severe. It’s an unbearable heat that’s nearly impossible to escape and that requires you to think twice about your plans.

Rethinking my plans is something I don’t do well. I like things to go the way I want them to go – the way I’ve envisioned them and thought them through. When Bernadette and I returned from vacation, many of the flowers I’d planted in the back yard were growing with a mind of their own and NOT according to my plans. Jasmine had grown into the space allocated for annuals; petunias took over a whole section with brazen disregard for the million bells and lilies that were in MY Plans. Now I had to adjust. We worked out a compromise. There was some trimming blended with some adjustments in my plans. My flowers and I are now speaking again.

Bernadette’s birthday at the end of July brought with it some wonderfully creative plans for how to celebrate. We surprised her by chartering a sailboat for an overnight sail up the Chesapeake with our family, including our son, Daniel, who came home from New York for a few days, and Bernadette’s mom for Philadelphia. It was planned as a time for us all to get reacquainted and celebrate Bernadette for all she is. Only a few hours into our sail, our son Lucian  - in a spirit of freedom and celebration – dove off the side of the boat for a swim and injured his knee (again). We spent the rest of the day and all of that evening in an emergency room and then had to cancel the rest of our planned two day trip. Once again: plans gone awry.

Of course, what I hadn’t planned on is that as we gathered around one another during Luke’s time at the hospital, we all got very reacquainted. Bernadette got to be “Super-mom” – once again; I got to hear stories from Daniel about his new life in New York; Mama had a chance to nurture and love us all, in other words, do what she does best. Plus, we all got out of the sweltering heat that I thought might cause us all heat stroke, not to mention the idea of sleeping on that boat without any air conditioning was nuts! And of course, brilliant though my plan was to gather the family together in a novel setting, the truth is I was on the verge of getting sick within the first 20 minutes of our little excursion. But – but – but MY PLANS! MY PLANS! Ah well. An unexpected development– a trip to the operating room for some knee surgery – a sense of humor – and we have a very memorable birthday that will keep us talking for years!

I suppose the only way to avoid plans going awry is to not make any. But then we’d miss seeing how many surprises there are in this life; we’d miss being prompted into a posture of wonder; we’d miss opportunities to learn and grow; and we’d have much less to talk about. So I say, make plans. Make lots of plans and hold on – because the real mystery is how we’ll be surprised!