My lunch date bailed on me today (again), but I really wanted to get out of the office for awhile. Since I'm only about seven miles from Kent, I decided to roll out there to BWW. It just so happens that it's on the other side of the river from where Stephanie had her apartment, and boy did the memories start rolling through my head.
There were a great many stages I associate with that area, from the holy shit she moved out stage, to the things aren't getting better stage, to the let's get divorced stage, to the holy shit I'm divorced stage. Even more incredible is that it all happened in the scope of two years.
That led me to an even bigger line of thinking, about how after only 35 years my life is so filled with intense "stuff." I connected the dots with a comment that Kara made ("And then even more unexpected things join the picture and make me re-think my re-thinking"), and the reality that I already sensed is now obvious: It never, ever stops.
I'm a little overwhelmed by this realization. In my previous post about stability, I've come to realize that there might not be any such thing. And while Gonch is right that there are more things at risk as you go through life, the change management is daunting.
Ultimately, I think the way you roll with this is to see change as an opportunity whenever possible, and you accept that it's how life goes. What you can't do is sit back and rely on the notion that "everything happens for a reason." I have a friend that says that all of the time, and I think it's cop-out bullshit that makes you sound like a victim. Everything happens because of some reason. The outcome is still up to you.
Although I believe "things happen for a reason", I also believe it's up to us to figure that "reason" out and make changes where necessary. Most of the time, it's changes we need to make within ourselves; how we react, how we deal with situations, even how we recover.
To me, everything life throws at me is an opportunity to learn something (whether I like it or not). And if I find myself in the same unpleasant situations over and over again, it means I have not yet learned whatever lesson it is I should be learning. I need to re-think my response.
I assume that's what you mean by because of rather than for a reason.
Life never stops throwing things at you. Just when you think you've got everything figured out, you get hit in the head again.
I thought raising a kid and working in a helpdesk environment taught me everything I'd ever need to know about patience...until my mom began to suffer from Alzheimer's.
Even old dogs need to learn new tricks.