This morning, I had to unplug the computers because of a lightning storm. Weather like that is pretty unexpected, though not unheard of in Iowa. The storm passed through quickly and my computer’s running again, but the little event got me thinking.
I thought about being a little kid in the late 1950s and early 60s, growing up in a small town with my sister and brother. (By the way, I’m the one with the hood tied so tight, my double-chin doesn’t show. No wonder I like this picture.) I don’t know about my sibs, but all I expected back then was that the Well’s Blue Bunny milkman would put our dairy order in the milk box twice a week and that Captain Kangaroo would be on at 8:00 every morning for the rest of my life. Therefore, it’s not surprising that I’ve encountered a lot of unexpected events. Here are a few that came to mind. I didn’t expect to:
- marry an Alaskan.
- leave teaching before the rule of 88.
- enjoy photography.
- fly to Georgia with my mother and sister.
- have a son who became a monk.
- write a mystery novel.
- miss South Dakota once we moved back to Iowa years ago.
- sit in a room with my brother while we watched our father die.
- have such a good relationship with my college daughter.
- know anything about computers.
- live in a place of such beauty.
- have a husband who, in my place, donated a kidney to a friend.
- have a son who calls to swap recipes.
- enjoy spending time with extended family so much.
- fit into my wedding dress after thirty-one years of marriage.
- have so many friends.
I’ll stop there. As I made the list, more and more good and unexpected things came to mind. And my mood is a lot better than when I started. Give it a try yourself. You could be pleasantly surprised, like I was. You might even start looking forward to the unexpected, something I’m still learning how to do.
There’s just one event I can’t accept. I can’t believe they took Captain Kangaroo off the air.
