24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being: December 22
Navigating the unexpected.
Welcome to 24 Days of Making, Doing, and Being, a digital Advent calendar for slowing down and making space for presence, creativity, and gratitude. This is a seasonal offering for paid subscribers. Thank you for being here.
I was listening to a snippet on NPR right before Thanksgiving where they interviewed various writers and food personalities about their favorite thing about the holiday. One of them noted that theirs was the evening before Thanksgiving. The moment after hours of prepping, of having everything for the day ahead outlined and planned, and despite decades of experience that would lead to one knowing better and thinking otherwise, having this beautiful thought: “ah, this year it’s going to be perfect.”
We probably all know what happens next: something alters the course, things end up not going according to plan.
Do things ever really go entirely according to plan? Serendipity often lies in adaptations, in the unexpected moments, but we’re hesitant to let go of control and it never has the space to weave its way in. Our expectations are often too high.
This is a season of expectations. Expectations of how things will look, how things will taste, how things will feel. We have plans in our heads. We have meticulously outlined every single step along the way, every moment, every meal. And yet… no matter how hard we work at facilitating what we want, life so often can get in the way. That’s kind of what life does best—it just keeps happening no matter what you do or don’t do.