Embracing Life's unplanned moments

“Life is what happens to us while we are making plans”- Allen Saunders.

Hey, everyone!

It has taken awhile to get myself back into blogging. To be honest, I had blogged a lot in my mind but they were not published or transcribed anywhere. Does that happen to you also? I know I am not alone in doing that. I did have a couple blogs written but can’t publish anymore as events have superseded those blogs.

That is so true. One gets caught up in making plans of how the day or week or even year will turn out, and you feel you are still on course even with a few twists. Then, everything changes. Why?...because life happens!

So, let’s go back to when things kinda got halted…

2020 was meant to be my year, the year I hit the big 5-0! I was excited because I had plans for celebrating my golden jubilee. I remembered where I was mentally when I turned 40 and was determined to celebrate God’s goodness in my life in whatever way I could when I turn 50. I had written a blog about being a 49er and was so looking forward to 50. I felt and looked good and sexy at 50, I was flying!

I started 2020 still unemployed but hopeful that my job was round the corner. Nothing was going to cut short my expectations of a great 2020. I would get a job and start planning my 50th birthday celebration which included a family photoshoot and party. I had great plans. This 2020 was going to be awesome!

And so, my great year started with my class Reunion Mediterranean Cruise in January which was simply wonderful as you can expect, a lot of us were turning 50 or had turned 50. So, it was a week of fun with 45 other women, some we hadn’t seen since we left secondary school. As I am sure you will concur, when you start your year with fun like that, you believe that will be how your year will go and even better.

Then, COVID happened!

It looked like the whole world had come to a standstill. However, I was still hopeful. I have mentioned in several blogs how optimistic I am. I thought to myself… “my 50th birthday celebration plans will need to change but I will celebrate”.

I asked God for a photoshoot experience and that is a blog for another day. He answered my prayer and I was ecstatic! I thought 2020 is my year, definitely!

In August 2020, I turned 50 and had two surprise parties (planned by my family and then friends), and a surprise Prayer meeting celebration by my PrayerCall ladies. This was during the 30 people in an event COVID hiatus if you remember. Oh my! I just couldn’t believe how God celebrated me. My song in those weeks was Excess Love by Mercy Chinwo. I so felt God’s love and prepared myself for more of His blessings.

I was now doing and enjoying working on my i.Authentiic Instagram Live chat events about inspiring  lives of people whose spouses had battled or were currently battling long term illnesses. My ‘Love As is’ Marriage series and coaching had taken off and I felt I was doing what I was meant to do as I waited for that elusive job. I had purpose. Financially, things were still tight but emotionally and physically, things were fine with me. My family had grown closer as we weathered 'lockdown', doing more family stuff like family games, home movies, more bible study. Chris and I commenced Year 2 of Bible Institute. There were some health challenges with Chris, however with every passing week, I was just grateful for the grace of God I was experiencing. I realised that sometime during the year, I had stopped making a lot of these big plans and was now working with what my life was. I just had one big plan left for the end of the year. I had started the year with expectations, so I was going to end it, showcasing the year’s many highlights and had gotten all the pictures ready.

Then, on the 30th of December my world crashed. There was no conceivable way I would have imagined that my 2020 which was meant to be my great year, my golden jubilee year, would end that way. I felt like a rug had been pulled from under me. How could this have happened!

Like a champion who entered the boxing ring believing the victory was theirs for the taking, and the first hit had brought them to their knees. Yep, that was me…down but …not out! Or was I?