Do you ever get those days when the Universe is pointing you in a completely different direction from the one you intended to go?

I’m having a week of it.

On a couple of days when I’d planned to work I had a sick child at home (no sympathy needed, he began to recover on day two and was diablo tossing at a circus skills class by the evening). Thursday was the day I was going to catch up with my work, but my laptop froze and there seemed to be no thawing it.  I took the hint and took the dog for a walk. 

When I got back the laptop was co-operating but I couldn’t get into my software package to work, so I fired off a couple of emails with requests for help and began to write instead.  Later in the afternoon my pleas were answered and I managed to work for a couple of hours.

I discovered that I can get my work done a lot quicker than I think I can if I don’t stress about it and FOCUS.  I also learned that problems aren’t necessarily problems until we turn them into one: if I’d started panicking about the work that was going undone, if I’d felt the mounting pressure of my to-do list, then I wouldn’t have been able to focus clearly on my work (and knowing me would have started procrastinating with copious cups of tea), and my fears it wouldn’t get done would have been realised; not because I didn’t have the time, but because I thought I didn’t have the time.  

Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t get everything done, but it turns out what was on my list was more a target for myself, and when some of it didn’t get done nothing bad happened. I’m coming to realise (and re-realise after I forget again) that if I surrender to what this moment needs of me (instead of clinging to what I thought it was supposed to look like), the very things I once stressed about end up getting done, or they don’t and it’s no big deal.

Is there anything you can let go of to make your days feel a little lighter?

Last week I promised you ducks, and whilst I’m willing to let go of some things, I’m also a woman of my word, so here’s my duck tale:

I was meeting a friend last month and arrived early.  There was a river nearby, so I wandered over and stopped on a little stone bridge to watch the ducks.  When was the last time you stopped to watch ducks being ducks?  For me it was probably when I was a child. 

I’ll be honest, I felt a little daft at first.  People were rushing by on their way to work, or walking their dogs and generally moving around with purpose, there was no one else  standing still and watching the wildlife (on a weekday, no less!) Then I remembered to get over myself: nobody cared.  Not even the ducks. 

Now I always thought ducks mated for life, so I was intrigued by their behaviour, circling around each other with the drakes giving the occasional snap of their beak.  None of them seemed to be coupled up and a bit of later googling revealed I’d stumbled into courtship season.  Apparently, ducks tend to pair up for a mating season then start again the following season (sounds like hard work to me).

The duck watching led me to see something else I’d never noticed before; a female duck stretched her wings to reveal a beautifully bright blue feather underneath her brown plumage.  I knew drakes had colourful plumage but not the hens too, which led me to this blog post with some beautifully captured pictures of the feather (speculum) and handy descriptions of duck courtship practices if you’re interested (I was).

It was so relaxing watching them that the half hour until my friend arrived flew past, and even though I had intended to meditate while I waited, the duck watching felt like meditating with a good dose of awe thrown in, what better way to start a Friday?

There it is again: that intent to do one thing, while another thing appears in front of us to gently nudge us in a different direction.  What might happen if we lower our resistance and allow ourselves to go with it?

Of course, there are also times when we’re busy doing one thing and the Universe throws a distraction our way just to see what we’ll do, and it’s up to us to notice the difference between a nudge and a distraction. For instance, whilst I was writing this post a friend text to ask if I fancied a quick drink at the pub, tempting, but I see what you’re doing tricky Universe, you’re attempting to derail me from my duck post, no such luck, this is getting ducking done (though if I write quick maybe I can fit in both!)

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I intended to write a duck post today, and I did, but what I didn’t expect was to search for ‘duck’ on my phone and come across a duck poem in my notes that I started but didn’t finish almost a year ago.  I’m off to tinker with it in the hopes that Sunday rhyme time will be bring you more duck tales.

Have a great weekend everyone.

Can you remember any times where you’ve let go of your expectations and gone with the flow?  What happened?