Beautiful weather and babysitting usually leads my husband and I to take our nieces and nephews to the park. My husband had this great idea that we would visit a park with a lake, so the kids could feed the birds. We grabbed left over popcorn, frisbees, and water bottles on our way to a fun afternoon. A few minutes into the fun, birds overhead began dive bombing us... and everyone was pooped on, per the video. The kids had poop on their pants, we were all walking through poop on the sidewalk, and my husband had the most unfortunate luck of all as a bird pooped right into his hand. Surprisingly, a fun day at the park left us all covered in poop. We could have just cried about it, and left. We could've cursed the birds for pooping, and blamed them for ruining our day. Instead, we laughed hysterically, I threatened to make everyone walk all the way home instead of riding in my car, and we (thankfully!!!) found a public restroom to wash off the poop. Obviously, things don't always go as planned. Our reaction to the unplanned, and our focus on the larger goal is what carries us through these times.
As I sit here in New Orleans with half our moving plans perfectly aligned, and the other half sort of in shambles, I'm reminded of how we all got pooped on at the park. We did our best to plan out our fun day, and yet we all got popped on. My intention on that day was to make great family memories. Considering everyone laughs now about the poop-day at the park, I think that afternoon was a huge success! Right now, I feel like I got pooped on by certain circumstances. While our moving story might not be funny later in life, the goal was achieved. We moved, we made it here safely; I've started my new job. Everything else shall fall into place, just as we found a public bathroom that day at the park. Things rarely ever go as planned. By staying focused on the goal, by staying calm, by being prepared, we can still achieve the goal.
This is what yoga can do; help us stay focused, help us stay calm, and help us keep moving towards our goals even as our plans are altered