Should we retort our grand design?

Four years ago as the wheels rolled beneath me on my move to Miami, I felt a growing cloud of anxiety and grief as if I knew that we were driving head first into a hurricane…and quite literally we were. Thus far in my life, any decision I have made with too much weight for another person has ended in destruction. That doesn’t mean I’ve chosen to be selfish or celibate, but that I have reached a point that I question the blueprint of this life and encourage you to question as well.

This move out west feels organic and full of purpose. As the recreational director of my youth, I am now placed in a life that promises only the basics to survival; shelter, income and friendship. Although I’m leaving a piece of my trust and smile with a select few in Minnesota, I’m walking into the light and designing every day in the manner that I see fit. We can make this choice.

So, what is our grand design and how much can we control? In only 25 years of experience, I’ve most commonly realized (or concocted) a reason for the way things turned out. I suppose my suggestion then is…if we are going to concoct a reason for the way things turned out anyways, why not take full advantage of the situation you’re in today? I don’t know why we meet intriguing people two days before we leave the state. I don’t know why we lose loved ones or why some people choose to leave. I don’t know why society tells us to stay in a miserable job to support a lifestyle that the individual has not defined themselves. What I do know, is that we have a life to live today anyways. Despite your foundation, your grand design or even your desires for the way you want your life to be—try just living it today. It just might turn out exactly the way it’s supposed to.
 

I met this happy bartender in Puerto Vallerta, Mexico back when my dreams were to live barefoot in the sand. After his divorce, he took off and opened this tiny bar just inches from the beach. I thought him terrific.