We all want the best out of life: the best friends, the best job, the best hobbies, the best partner, the best children, the best pets... It is so easy to be dissatisfied with everything that comes along, so hard to just be happy with our deal in life, that things often turn out that they’re not the best for us. Yet, quite often, there is someone else out there, quite jealous of those things we have, the things that we are just so unable to be satisfied with.
I wake up in the morning, I roll the dice – a 5. I take 5 little hops long the floor and slip on a snake that sends me hurtling downstairs. Just as I recover and managed to find a ladder to pull myself up again, my next roll sends me running into another snake, which this time takes me down further, meaning I have to start all over again. Snakes and Ladders – a game that is almost impossible to win. But, why do we actually want to win? Shouldn’t we be thinking more about playing along and seeing where it takes us?
I was so pissed off with being sent down on that snake this morning that I missed my friend’s lovely smile, which could have warmed me up so well and helped me climb back up sooner without needing extra dice throws. I felt so much like I was on my way to winning after I’d climbed up that ladder that I wasn’t looking where I was going so made a mistake that sent me spinning down the next snake.
We so much want to be in control of our own dice throws that we don’t realise that we can live without them! Sometimes it does feel like someone else is throwing the dice for us, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t be in control of the outcome. It’s all about acceptance – a bad day is a bad day, but it’s not the end of the world, and if you’re still here, alive after it, then you can carry on, pick yourself up again, plonk the dice down on the number you want and say, “I’m going there!”
There is a lovely song by Bruce Dickinson, Navigate the Seas of the Sun, with absolutely brilliant lyrics, which you can view here. Such powerful lyrics, which on the one hand could be about finding a new world, space, but, if you look into them deeper, could so easily be as much about finding yourself. “If God is throwing dice, and Einstein doesn’t mind the chance…”, there are just so many brilliant phrases in there.
So, whether it’s the randomness of an unknown box of chocolates without any leaflet guide to tell you what they are (or Revels, perhaps, but you know at least one will be a peanut!), or random dice throws whilst trying to get on up the ladders of life; yes, we can’t always be in control of everything that comes our way, so why try to be too much? Oh yes, taking responsibility for things when necessary, of course, but apart from that? Relax, let it flow. What will be will be (que sera sera – I’m not going to go into another song, I’m not!). And watch. The bad deals might seem harsh, but they nearly always have something pleasant around there, somewhere, an opportunity, a place to go. The good deals seem so thrilling, but keep yourself alert so you don’t miss out on the next thrilling ride. :)
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