At lunch today, I heard myself say, “life is uncertain, capricious and bad things do happen but I am determined — as much as I can — to only undergo bad things ONCE. I do not want to undergo them repeatedly due to fear.”
WOW! That is no doubt obvious. But, still, it felt like I NEEDED to hear myself say those words. Aging seems to make life just a wee bit MORE capricious and uncertain! I do believe in planning as best I can. But there is no substitute for the ability to bounce — as in bounce back from adversity.
Just this morning, God, while reading our daughterʻs book Mango Days I read how she said, “Usually I bounce with the best, but I can’t always.” She had just talked about going in to her resident advisor’s room at Stanford when she needed to cry. And I thought that is the KEY to being able to bounce. Having some way to get help and comfort when we are NOT able to bounce.
We all need help, God. And BOY to I resist asking for help! What a fear we have of being needy and whinny and helpless! Well, the whinny part is perhaps optional. But needy and helpless are just part of life!
That brings up an important thought. Laurence Gonzales in his book Deep Survival talks about how experienced hikers often die when lost — but children under seven hardly ever die when lost. One key reason is that children do not know that they are lost. That spares them the panic that overcomes those old enough to know they are lost.
Somehow, God, our mental conceptual maps make an enormous difference on how we live and how we react to disasters and problems. I’m going for a walk and listening to The Unthinkable: Who Survives When Disaster Strikes — and Why. Then I shall ponder this whole topic some more.
Story teller,
A Moment with God 
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