The Instead

Today in Massachusetts, and in fact all over the northeast, it was Texas hot. Like Houston. Hot, sticky, sweaty, oppressive hot. 

When it's this sweltering, you look for something to do that allows you to stay indoors in the air conditioning, assuming you have air conditioning. Luckily Shannon and Tim do.

We spent our evening watching the "Best Marigold Hotels" movies because I had always wanted to, but never got the opportunity. They were as lovely as I expected them to be.

As the characters reflected on lives well lived, or in some cases seemingly wasted, there were a couple of quotes that stood out to me...

Evelyn Greenslade: Nothing here has worked out quite as I expected.
Muriel Donnelly: Most things don't. But sometimes what happens instead is the good stuff.

I like the thought of the"instead." We all have expectations of how situations in our lives will turn out.  Sometimes we have more control than other times. When things don't work out, we can choose to lament the death of our plan, or we can get on with making the most of the instead.

The other quote is one I'm sure you'll remember if you've seen the movies. It's Sonny 's mantra...

Everything will be all right in the end and if it's not all right, then it's not yet the end.

This is especially poignant if you, like me, are in the middle of a journey. Impatience makes it difficult to just enjoy the path ahead rather than fret about the end of the road.

Life lessons are all around us, if we're paying attention. These were golden.

As I took the dogs out for a walk before bed, the air was still thick with heat and humidity. I imagine this is what India feels like. I've never really had a desire to go there, but... The heat index might be worth it for the life experience.

Photo credit Pixabay user Glavo