It’s hard for me to break a plan. I like organization and planning. I have learned with time that sometimes a change in plans makes things better and it brings opportunities that I would have never considered.
An example is traveling with my husband to Italy. I wanted to plan everything. His plan was NOT to make a plan. We compromised to plan the beginning and the end, but the middle was his run wild with. I was so nervous! We got to cities with no hotel reservations. We learned that if he called to ask for availability, there was none… but if I called, rooms were suddenly available. (The beauty of being a woman – they know we’ll be responsible.) If we liked a place, we tried to stay longer. In Cinque Terre, we decided to stay one more day. The hotel didn’t have another night available, so the owner offered us a room in his mom’s house. We stayed with grandma! She didn’t know a word of English, yet we managed to talk for hours! She told us stories, she cried and laughed. She really liked having our company and even packed us cookies and figs when we went out to see the town. Not having a plan gave us an opportunity to meet wonderful people, stay in places that were full of character and we ate eat delicious food that we had never tried before. I learned through that trip that it is okay to go with plan B or sometimes to not have a plan!
So next time, when things are not going according to Plan A, look forward to Plan B!
~ Norma