Minnie Moo plans for the unexpected

Because life throws us all curved balls we all need a little wriggle room

Today I'm lounging on the couch on Day 3 of my stay-cation, you know my stay at home vacation and I'm sitting peacefully by myself pondering life as I know it. I can't help but be a little bit in awe as to how things can quickly change in the blink of an eye and of our amazing ability to cope with sudden change.

I know I'm being a little profound here but this me-time is the perfect tonic and giving me the luxury of time to think. Just a little.

These past couple of weeks have really taught me even the best made plans come undone. As much as we think we've got it all mapped out and our diaries and calendars scheduled to the hilt, life's dreaded curved ball throws things way out of our control, leaving us no choice but to stop, think and adapt.

Right now with all the unplanned changes that I've been through I think I'm the most flexible cat in the world, so much so that I should think about trying out for Cirque du Soleil. One minute my day is going according to my plan the next I'm reeling from a change that will stay with me for the rest of my life.

Sometimes over our milk hold the coffee morning my cat-buddies will chat about how losing someone dear to you is part of life something that you can plan to happen to you at some stage but you can never plan for how you're going to be when losing a loved one. There's oodles of books on how to deal with loss but how you're going to feel well that's going to be so unique and personal to everyone of us. 

For me loosing my OPA was and still is heart-breaking and I now understand what it means to be on a metaphoric (wow that's a big word wait a minute while I look it up) roller-coaster ride. It's changed me and one thing that I didn't do that day was to plan to change. Instead life planned to change me.

All of my plans were rendered useless and I gave myself a little wriggle room to help me say it's ok to let go of everything you'd planned to do. Time may stop for no-one but it's ok to hit the pause button on how you had planned time.

It's amazing how this one thing can be the hardest task to do...to give yourself permission to throw your plans out the window. For us cats it's super hard to do as we don't like going off schedule. At all.

A couple of other things happened that week that made me stop and think we can plan as much as we like but sometimes life will step in and change things up.

On a lighter note one evening I was lying on the carpet enjoying the cool breeze wafting in through the open lounge window. At this precise time I was planning to do nothing more than sleep with one eye on the telly.

Just when I'm about to nod off Ms Miley swoops on in flying through the window causing a flight of hysterical chaos throughout the house. My normal pleasant cat buddy from over the road had transformed herself into one of her magical characters and like a witch cackled a wilded laugh as she flew around on her imaginery broom-stick.

This time of craziness was totally unplanned and all my plans flew out the window at the exact time Ms Miley flew in.

I know this isn't a major but even for these small unexpected events a little wriggle room is a calming tool.

This is a true story. In my life's plan I definitely see myself snuggled up in front of an open fire lazing my life away. However never in my thinking did I plan to ever be out there patrolling a real angry and threatening fire. 

By the time I arrived the fire was menacing and blazing half-way across the block, it was hot, wild and on a war-path. Flames were high-jumping into the night sky, tyres were melting and everyone was working against the odds to keep it contained. Amazingly no lives, homes or anipals were lost.

Thankfully it didn't come anywhere near the factory of the other guy who lives in my house but boy I've never seen anything like it in any of my nine lives. 

Another thing, no one planned for this event.

I know my life is pretty much all about napping, eating and sleeping and I'm not shy to say I'm proud of these achievements but as you can see even my basic routine can be shaken up. A lot. 

I'm going to take a leaf out of my own book and learn to plan to add a little wriggle room in my day to cope with the unexpected. As no matter how big or small let's find a way to be ok to say "Right now I'm hitting the pause button on how I've planned my life to deal with what life has planned for me."

Yours in hopefully there's no wriggle room in my bag of friskies Minnie Moo