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Integrity & Awareness by Paul Burnstein

Friday, April 13, 2007

Flexibility in Planning

"The best laid schemes o' mice an' men / Gang aft agley" (often paraphrased as "The best-laid plans of mice and men / Often go awry")
-Robert Burns, To A Mouse, 1785

I am a planner. I like to figure out plans in advance and map out my to do lists. I guess I can be spontaneous once in a while, but for the most part I prefer to plan.

Today I am reminded that things do not always go according to plan. Last night there was a ninety percent chance of snow, with three to five inches of snow expected here in Boulder. Today we were supposed to get another four to six inches on top of that. While it is not a beautify day today (look here), it did not snow over the night and the revised forecast for today is an accumulation of less than once inch of wet snow.

This does not shift my day or my plans, but it does serve as a reminder that we cannot always plan. Sometime we just need to go with the flow.

The only thing we know for certain in this world is that things change; impermanence.

The awareness for today is to recognize impermanence. Plan for what you can, but do not remain too rigid with those plans.
~Paul

1 comment:

Jennie said...

the teaching I've been working with lately is "recognize and relax" which fits well with what you've written. You know I'm a planner too, and when plans go awry, all we can do is recognize and relax.