"We are all here for a single purpose: to grow in wisdom and to learn to love better. We can do this through losing as well as through winning, by having and by not having, by succeeding or by failing."

This thought opens me up in a way that a knee jerk evaluation (i.e. complaints about my circumstances) doesn't. 

Oh, There is a long line for ice cream. I had thought we would be in and out but now I see that the girls and I can chat while we wait.

People are not ready to leave for this trip when I expected them to be. Perhaps they were up later than I was. Let's adjust the plans. 

The course I was expecting to teach next year is cancelled. I am curious what other things will emerge to fill that time. 

It is a game changer for me to believe that when things do not follow my expectations, all is not lost. Yes, I had a plan, and was invested in it. Quite likely it was a good idea. For instance the notion that Benjamin would be a fully functioning adult by this time. We are no longer operating from plan A, and there is considerable uncertainty finding plan B. Make that L. 

But trust continues to be my guardrail. In fact, and I surprise even myself in saying this, my capacity for curiosity and joy feels more expansive for him, than it might be if there were no shadows. 

Very different is the case with those who trust in the Divine. These, notwithstanding they have care for the morrow, still have it not, because they do not think of the morrow with solicitude, still less with anxiety. Unruffled is their spirit whether they obtain the objects of their desire, or not; and they do not grieve over the loss of them, being content with their lot. If they become rich, they do not set their hearts on riches; if they are raised to honors, they do not regard themselves as more worthy than others; if they become poor, they are not made sad; if their circumstances are mean, they are not dejected. They know that for those who trust in the Divine all things advance toward a happy state to eternity, and that whatever befalls them in time is still conducive thereto.
-Emanuel Swedenborg, Heavenly Secrets 8478