“Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.”

-Allen Saunders

Although most famously sung by John Lennon in “Beautiful Boy” on his Double Fantasy album with Yoko Ono, the Allen Saunders quote above from 1957 reflects an old Yiddish proverb, “We plan, G!D laughs!”

The map, no matter how precise, is never quite the territory. And every plan is outdated from the moment we take action- because once we take a single step, the vista changes. Events emerge, circumstances evolve, scenarios that we could never have imagined unfold. This is not a bad thing. For although we never have complete control of our destiny, we always have influence over it.

There’s wisdom in letting ourselves just go along for the ride. Not to give up hoping, dreaming, planning and striving to shape our lives. But realizing, that in the end, our life will be what it will be, with our input of course! We may as well enjoy it as it unfolds.

How can you enjoy your life’s unfolding today?

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Allen Saunders (April 24, 1899 – January 28, 1986) was an American writer, journalist and cartoonist who wrote the comic strips Steve Roper and Mike Nomad, Mary Worth and Kerry Drake.

Joe Laur is a father, husband, naturalist, executive, consultant, and a lowly rabbinic student. He can be reached at joe.laur@godsdog.net.