I have three sinks in my house. Each sink has a soap dispenser and a larger refill container in the cabinet below. It seems like whenever I refill the soap in one sink, another one runs out.
A while back, I had one of my favorite sweaters mended. It was a revelation! Until the newly reinforced seam created an opportunity for the sweater to split in another area. Whomp, whomp.
While these examples may sound like minor inconveniences, I’ve experienced many other life events where I felt like I had figured things out, only for some new wrinkle or reminder to let me know that nope, there was still plenty to sort out, process, deal with, and accept.
I am guessing you are familiar with the expression “waiting for the other shoe to drop.”
When I hear that, I have thoughts like:
Things are going really great right now, should I be worried?
It’s all fun and games until [insert some kind of danger].
It’s only a matter of time until this all goes to sh*t.
Do you know where the expression originally came from?
New York City in the late 19th and early 20th century was filled with tenements housing many different apartments. It was typical for the bedrooms to be on top of one another. So you’d hear your upstairs neighbor take off one shoe, drop it, then take off the other.
Maybe you already knew that, but it was news to me. It made me think less of fear and worry, and more about inevitability.
Inevitability, in a sense, is certainty. Knowing that something is going to happen. Like gravity for example. What goes up, must come down.
It can go both ways. One of my life mottoes is “You gotta get down to get up!” This usually comes with a dance move (insert disco ball), but what it really means is:
Sometimes we have to go through hard stuff to get to the good stuff.
In the world of uncertainty that we live in, especially now, inevitability can help us plan and prepare.
Inevitability can help us accept things and try responding in new ways.
Inevitability can open us up to hope.
Hope can move mountains.
We can form stronger bonds with ourselves, our friends, our neighbors.
We can start movements and change minds.
We can tap into previously unknown resources of strength, solidarity, and support.
We are watching it happen in real time all around us.
I have only one question for you today and it is simply:
How will you hold onto hope?
This was originally published in my weekly newsletter. If you’d like to subscribe, you can do so here: newsletter.rozduffy.com
