You have arrived...

We are all often guilty of missing life while we are planning our lives. With our short term, medium and long term goals, lists and planners. But something happened last year, in the middle of our plans that stopped us in our tracks. Yes, I'm talking about the dreadful Covid. I know with myself, I was working hard and in the stages of making new decisions to take me further down my wish lists of where I would like to be, doing what I would like to do and with those I wanted to share this with.  I thought I had time, I thought I was doing as well as I could be, trying to do my best. Then life suddenly turned into a game of musical chairs - the music stopped and we were all left at that point. No way to go back, no way to move forward.  We just had to sit and be grateful we had a chair. 
Like many who have built up businesses that have taken years, everything came to a sudden halt. What cards you had dealt yourself to get you to that point was all that we would have to use to try and carve out a way forward. For me and many others, it was a time of shock then reflection. I could almost here my 'sat-nav' of life say to me "You have arrived." But I hadn't, I had been abruptly stopped in my tracks and found myself on quicksand.
But like quicksand we have had to tread this year carefully, taking just small steps, the right decisions at the right time, taking our time to get it right.  Often asking for help has fallen on deaf ears.  Maybe that's how it has to be for now, as everyone is on their own new paths wrapped up in uncertainty and the unknown. This junction has forced us to look deep within. So this may not be where we planned to be but this is where we are supposed to be for whatever reason. What we have to do is keeping looking and remembering what we have learned from the past and certainly the last 12 months and how that can help us into the months ahead. Remind ourselves that maybe planning our lives is more about planning today, the now. Finding joy in the small things, the big things, the everything. A joyous day was not my long term plan, but if I can find it, I will be grateful that 'I have arrived'.