The Double Rainbow

Sometimes timing, nature, and just plain bad luck can throw a wrench in the best formed plans. It can be very disappointing especially when you have made extensive time-sensitive arrangements and mobilized lots of people and resources to help you. Though always frustrating, I have found more often than not, if you allow fate to play out its hand, stay positive, and keep working toward a solution – things, usually will work out.

No I am not a Pollyanna. Bad things do happen to even good people with good intentions. In some ways it is the ‘risky’, daring, unknown parts of life that make it worth living. After all if everything always went smoothly and to plan, our stories and memories would soon lose their definition and verve. Not that I want my plans to fail, but I do personally like feeling the adrenaline of timing a project or appointment, and living life to a tight schedule with little margin for error. I LIKE the responsibility of making the impossible possible, especially if it is on time and under budget.

Now nature too is NO Pollyanna. Nature is more like that disinterested property tax collector that is just doing his job. It is nothing personal. Nature is not for you or against you – but it’s diligent, resourceful, and WILL be paid no matter what. Nature makes and breaks the rules at will and always has home field advantage. Those are the times when you can’t blame yourself or your ‘people’ for bad judgment or poor preparation. All you can do is learn to adjust, move quickly, and make contingencies a reality very smoothly and calmly. Even though you can’t see it, your efforts are seamlessly shifting the odds back to your advantage.

We recently felt the wrath of the weather upon a weekend project as our perfect planning was completely ruined by thunderstorms. I groused and worried for a few minutes, but eventually we adjusted and did something else important that was NOT affected by weather. We also activated our project’s contingency plan, adjusted our resources, and after all that … STILL threw the dice for good measure. Nature amazingly cooperated, everything fell together, and we made it happen, EVEN when our chances seemed dim. Nature graciously sent us a unique reminder, that most of the time, you CAN find success in even the darkest of hours. So the next time life throws you a bit of a curve, keep your chin up … there’s always a chance for success in your future. And if you’re really lucky – that curve will be a double rainbow!