It’s up to us to give ourselves flexibility of schedule. When have things ever gone as planned.  It does happen, but there are always things that come up.  On a trip to the store traffic is horrible for no apparent reason. Getting our license renewed there’s a three-hour wait instead of the typical hour and a half.  We go out to lunch with some friends from work.  Afterwards a portion of the group decides to get a quick cup of coffee and run into an old friend who started the company they still work for.  Those who went to the car missed out on the random meeting of their old friend.  We go about our business every day thinking things are in their place or in control.  In fact, randomness pervades our experience, especially as we realize just how interdependent we all are.

As we mature in life we make decisions and incrementally take on responsibilities.  Our time becomes more and more limited.  We naturally respond by scheduling smaller and smaller intervals.  I love it when I have two minutes to read a paragraph or two in a book or add some quotes to my Pinterest boards.  We schedule our time down to the nat’s ass so to speak. When we do not account for randomness in our plans we lose out on the possibilities that arise.  Instead of allowing things to happen as they may, we stress ourselves out trying to get back on track and schedule we thought we could manage.

When we accept the randomness around us, we open ourselves up to the richness around us.  When traffic slows us up we can get into the book or music we’re listening to.  When a line stretches to eternity we can enjoy a book, play with an electronic device or even work if we have that level of portability.  When we come across old friends we can take more than a few seconds to reconnect.  Our tolerance for change increases and our flexibility of mind is easier to develop.  Then when a life changing event like an illness, injury or loss of job occurs we can use the events to our benefit instead of getting lost in the difficult of whatever happens.