A life of uncertainty
Once my family and I were leaving for a long car ride to Lonavala - a wonderful place in India, we planned on reaching at 1 and eat our lunch in the hotel itself. We opened google maps, and it predicted we would reach there by 1 if we left at 8. We followed that and left early that day. But, halfway there, our car came to a halt. As my parents tried to fix the problem, I looked out the window. The hill sloped down slowly. A lake, calm and transparent, lay at the bottom of the hill. The sky was powder blue with the whitest clouds I have ever seen. Life didn't feel real at that moment. It took an hour and a half to get the car to start again. We missed the buffet and had to find another restaurant to eat at, which was a pain, we were all hungry, and it took some time to find a restaurant. But it didn't matter. The view I saw at that moment and the feeling I had when I breathed in the warm fresh air put a smile on my face that I couldn't get rid of.
I imagined how I would not have that feeling of warmth if something unpredictable, like our car having a problem starting again, didn't happen.
- "If life were predictable, it would cease to be life, and be without flavor." -Eleanor Roosevelt.
Imagine if you knew everything that would happen in your future. What would you think would happen then?
- You would not have the same feeling of joy you'd get after winning a competition.
- You wouldn't be surprised to see the gifts the people who care for you brought when you least expected them.
- You'd forget the overwhelming feeling we feel while taking a risk because you knew it would turn out ok.
- You'd know everything that is to come, no surprises, no color. Life would be a blank canvas.
Very true! The only thing certain of the future is its uncertainty. They say man proposes, God disposes. Your post mostly dwells on the positive aspect of uncertainty, based on your experience of breakdown of car during Lonavla trip. Our similar experience of breakdown during our trip from Simla to Kulu Manali was harrowing. In the dusty and hot small town midway, I was stuck up with my family including small children for almost 3 hours before our vehicle was made fit to recommence the journey. The result was that instead of reaching Manali on our scheduled time of 8 p.m., we reached at 11 p.m. It was really scary for the family to continue driving in pitch darkness in mountainous terrain with almost every one dozing of due to tiring journey and praying that the driver does not similarly doze of. Thank God, he did not do that !
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