Your crystal ball is broken

Isn't it funny how we are so convinced that we know what the future holds, yet time after time life shows us that our crystal balls are of less value than the Magic 8 balls some of us played with as children?

I was thinking about how my life these days, outside of parenting, consists of horses and weaving. (Well, fiber in general, but weaving is what I spend the most time thinking about.) If I think back to even just ten years ago, there was not the remotest idea in my head that this would be the case. Life is full of surprises. 

This is also true of our parenting. I can vividly remember sobbing on a therapist's couch about the horrible things I knew... KNEW... were in my family's future. And she very gently pointed out that nothing was set in stone. It was difficult to really believe her, but even have someone else who knew the details of our life think differently about our future was enough to pull me back from the edge a bit. And here I am, many years later, to say she was right and I was so incredibly wrong.

So the next time you wake up at 3 am in the morning and your brain starts to spiral about all the ways your life is going to implode, treat it like a cranky toddler. Get a drink of water, rearrange your covers, remind yourself that your not quite awake brain is clueless, and tuck it back into bed. 

More often than not, the twists and turns of my life have been adventures I wouldn't trade even if some were challenging. Our crystal balls don't function, and that's actually a good thing.