Expecting the Unexpected

My blog posts (as some of you have lovingly pointed out) have been few and far between over the past several months. However, it’s not only the crafting of the next book that usurped my blog.

Unexpectedly, Steve and I sold our home. In a day. After purchasing property to build our next home, we decided to privately list our house when a couple from California unexpectedly found the perfect home to raise their four children. Following the big surprise that we sold our home (without actually intending to) was the fact that the buyers needed us to move out in fifteen days. Unexpectedly, we pulled it off. (Expectantly, we were exhausted.)

Thus, we found ourselves, unexpectedly, moving to a townhouse in the hip part of town where the young professionals reside. It is in this neighborhood that Annie and I were greeted enthusiastically by neighboring residents, eager to make our acquaintance. Their welcoming spirit and interest in this aging newcomer and her energetic Doodle was so unexpected it made me laugh.

Then, following the two-week whirlwind, I unexpectedly feel ill. Nothing major, just a cold that pressed me to the sofa for about six days. This is when a beautiful young woman who lives next door dropped off a care package for me. Her concern and extended kindness were so totally unexpected I found myself in awe of her.

Which brings me to this past weekend when a note from one of my readers appeared in my inbox. Her words of refreshment and appreciation fell at exactly the perfect time as I wrestled with the epilogue of this first work of fiction. The result: unexpected encouragement.

That’s when it hit me.

The unexpected often arrives in a cloud of crisis: a flood; a fall; a layoff; a diagnosis. Change, uncertainty, challenge and panic are often the sidekicks of the unexpected. But think about it. Those are awful but rare events. Unexpected blessings actually occur far more frequently.

We just have to learn to watch for them expectantly . . . in order to be gratefully aware.