The entire weekend was planned out. I was scheduled to finish up a few things, go to the doctor for my weekly appointment, and then head to New Jersey to be with my family for Diwali. Side note: this Indian holiday is like going home for Christmas, so I was incredibly excited!
Diwali is a time when everyone in my family gets together to celebrate, dress up, light tons of candles, eat yummy food, and exchange gifts. It’s hands down one of my absolute favorite weekends of the year. In fact, I plan it out months in advance with my Mom, and this year was no different.
Sadly, things didn’t go as planned.
On Friday, I had a super hectic morning. I ran around to several appointments and I ended up having a conversation with someone that really got under my skin. But I kept reminding myself that the moment I was with my family, everything would be fine.
By the time I got to the train station, I only had minutes to spare. So I jumped out of the cab and RAN (I’m not a runner, to be clear). When I arrived, I found out that my train was delayed. I was so flustered and stressed from the day I’d already had that I was literally about to lose it. But, I somehow pulled it together and focused on gratitude. I would be with my Mom in an hour and just couldn’t wait!
Long story short, I finally got on the train, but within the first 30 minutes of getting to New Jersey, I had to go back to the city and forget about our Diwali weekend. You see, I have been fostering a super special dog named Dhalia for the past couple of weeks, and had left her with a friend for the weekend. But the moment I dropped her off and headed to Penn Station, Dhalia ended up getting sick! Yup.
Back to NYC I went to take care of her.
I’m not going to lie…there were tears. Lots of them. I was so heartbroken that my holiday was basically canceled. More than anything, my Mom had worked so hard to cook amazing food for me and had gotten the house all decorated; I knew she was super disappointed too. It just sucked!
That said, it was a huge lesson in surrender. All of it. Since I didn’t really have a choice, I had to find a way to embrace the inconveniences of the circumstances. So after tending to the pup, I made new plans. I ended up going to see a silly movie with a friend which totally lifted my spirits. On Saturday night, I wound up at a holiday party. And on Sunday, I was able to visit with my grandparents to celebrate, and even brought my soul sister Kavita with me. So all in all, everything worked out. But, I was really pushed to surrender in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to in the past.
The muscle of surrendering is something that is constantly being activated for us to work on, isn’t it? How can we forgive more? Let go more? Be more flexible and less controlling? I’m still figuring it out, my love. But if this weekend taught me anything, it was this: there is beauty everywhere if we let go and allow it to show up.
So, now I’d love to hear from you. How can you let go and surrender just a little bit more? Is there a situation in your life that you have been trying to control and haven’t fully been able to let go of? Or was there a time that surrendering really helped you get through something? Let me know in the comments below.