"It's all in how you react. This determines the quality of your life."
I find this to be more than true. If the critical eye is on constant alert, then surely it will be a life of frustration. If the eyes are attuned to being openned just a bit wider,
the opportunity differs...the emotions perhaps similar but the processing of and the actions one take very much different.
A friend at work told me about "reservations and chicken nuggets". If you plan, the opportunity is reservations at a great restaurant, else it's chicken nuggets. I love this for the workplace, where there are innumerable moving parts and communication really is in timing and dealing with the unforeseen obstacles in relation to coordination. In the sphere of our personal lives I am not so sure this is always the best mode of being.
Steve and I on a whim attended our community theatre production of Totally Modern Millie. It was performed by high school and college students. We enjoyed it immensely. It was a chicken nuggets situation--and it rocked.
After everything, there a couple of changes I see emerging. There are things I have put off that I threw into a schedule. There are people I haven't spoken to in years that I'd like to have an understanding of how their lives are going. There is an odd attunement to things I have probably seen for years but never really looked at or allowed my mind to wander through the connected memories.
The key: don't let it fade, learn from it, integrate it...it's the gentle gift of being that much more in this life rather than comfortably insulating oneself from the experience.