It feels appropriate that I’m listening to the Lion King and the title of this post is “Be Prepared.” My daughter played Scar in her school play a few years ago and got to sing that song.
Today we went to the zoo. It was about 30 degrees outside. Why would we go to the zoo in that weather….because my sister is here from out of town, and her little animal obsessed munchkin is having a birthday, and the zoo is his favorite place to be.
I hate being cold. Really hate it. I knew it was going to be horrible if we didn’t prepare for it. I wore two pairs of leggings under my jeans, three sweatshirts, a wool coat, 2 pairs of wool socks, gloves, and a hat. My kids had almost as many layers.
All my preparation paid off. With all those layers, I didn’t feel cold in the slightest. We had a great time and stayed for hours. I know it would have been a totally different story if I had failed to prepare for the nearly freezing temperature by wearing so many layers.
As I thought about it on the drive home, I reflected on how many times unpleasant things occur in our lives. Some of those things…we know in advance they are coming. Or we at least know what to expect once they start. If your baby is sick, you know you’ll be getting up in the night. If your husband is going to be busier than normal with work, or has a business trip, you know you won’t have a tag team partner. If you don’t feel the best, you know your productivity will be lower. We can prepare for so many of these less-than-ideal circumstances, and life is so much better when we do. The zoo would have been miserable, but I knew it would be cold and prepared for it. One of my friends is really good at this. Her husband sometimes has to leave for a few weeks or work crazy hours during production for films. She knows he won’t be available to help with kids when that happens. So she prepares for it. She sets up babysitters in advance so she can have breaks. She puts the kids to bed early because she knows she’s going to be worn out physically and emotionally by the end of the day.
There will be unpleasant things in our lives, but their effect on us will be lessened when we plan for them and prepare for it.
Work In Progress 