Plans

"Now the sky could be blue, could be gray, without you I'm just miles away." --  Strawberry Swing, Coldplay

I’m a fairly metaphoric person. I’m not the hippie type to tell you that your soul is really a rabbit, nor the Dr. Seuss type to tell you that your world is really a fluff on a flower being carried by a giant elephant in the sky.

But I relate easily to my surroundings, and I find expressing my thoughts in that way helps people understand me better. 

Anyway, as of late, I’ve been thinking a lot. Slowly getting back to my more philosophical side, I suppose.

And recently, I’ve been thinking about plans. 

Having just finished an exam that went well and it being nice outside, I was sitting outside reading my book yesterday, soaking up some well-missed sun.  I like to be comfy when I read, so I was lying back on the warm concrete of the roof of 137 (thanks, Ron Thom) and seemingly became distracted by some clouds drifting by.

I was attracted by the colour of the sky, first of all, and how blue it was. Being a bit of a backcountry girl, I always forget the way the sky lightens around the horizon and gets deeper blue towards the middle. Anyway, that’s another story.

I felt like a kid again, looking for shapes in the clouds, watching them shift shapes and whisp around the sky.

And I realized that clouds are very similar to plans.

As I’ve said, I’ve been thinking about plans lately. Maybe it’s because I’ve suddenly realized I’m halfway through my life as an undergraduate. Maybe it’s figuring out living arrangements for the year and beyond. Maybe it’s looking for alternate employment for the summer. Maybe it’s realizing who’s important to me. Maybe it’s thinking about the future and what I want from it.

I have a lot of plans. 

Everyone has a lot of plans. 

They’re what keep us going, in a way. They give us something to look forward to, something to hold onto when things get rocky, something to look back on and tell ourselves we did the right thing. 

I got thinking, as I watched the clouds dance across the sky. Our plans are like clouds (fine, that’s a simile, not a metaphor, thank you English Majors).

We make plans that tend to float aimlessly around for a while. They fluctuate; bits break off when they don’t work and bits get added when things get thrown into the mix last minute. They interact with other people’s plans. Sometimes two clouds collide and make one big one. Sometimes they make amazing shapes and formations that catch the sun just right at sunset…and sometimes they create vicious storms that rage across the whole sky and never seem to end. Sometimes we get to our destination (above Maccu Picchu) and sometimes we don’t (above a chemical factory in Cleveland).

But most of the time, despite our best efforts, life is quite random. We can’t control anyone else’s plans and sometimes they take over ours, for better or for worse.

 We can’t always control where we go in life, or the means in which we get there. But we make plans, and on a whim and a prayer we head out into the world hoping that ‘things go as planned’.

Plans are good. They give us inspiration, hope, and stability. They give us the drive to do the right thing.

But knowing that they don’t always work out is just as important. Sometimes plans fall through, and sometimes the unexpected occurs. 

But you know what, life is beautiful, no matter how ugly it can seem. There is beauty in a storm, especially just after it ends. No matter what, the sun sets and rises (even if it’s hidden!), and life goes on.

As someone important to me once said,

“We fall in love, we fall out of love…but we’ll still end up worrying what to do with our Friday nights.”

Plans lead to plans that lead to plans. 

And as many of them as I have, I’m content to just sit and watch the clouds go by once in a while. To expect the unexpected. And to be ready for whatever comes next.