I really love surprises. But because I'm the "Mom" I rarely get surprised. I usually organize all the parties, plan our vacations and buy Christmas presents, including my own. And the men in my life (my husband and two sons) are sort of cautious people who want to check with me before they buy me a birthday present. I usually just say "Lets just go out to dinner together." Hence, I rarely get a birthday present, and I certainly never get surprised. I guess what I really am looking for in a surprise is to think that there's someone in my life that "gets" me enough to know how to surprise me. For example, I wish someone in my life knew that I really want a pair of Bastad clogs like I had in high school. I'm part Dutch and my feet were made to wear a wooden shoe. But of course now the cat is out of the bag and if anyone got me Bastad clogs it wouldn't count because it wouldn't be a surprise. I'll be getting myself a pair of Bastad clogs soon.
I'm not the type of person to feel sorry for myself though so I won't dwell on not being surprised by material things. I've decided that I'm going to let myself be surprised by life's happenings and its many twists and turns.
2011 was full of surprises. I had breast cancer. I felt absolutely fine and so that was a bit of a surprise. It was only stage zero and quickly resolved. I decided to embrace this little health-related surprise as a reminder that I am a vulnerable human being like everyone else. It also made me realize how much sicker so many other people are and to be thankful that overall I'm pretty healthy. This surprise also showed me how wonderful modern medicine is.
I had a relatively new friend at this time, Joan, who surprised me by sending me flowers as I was recovering. I love getting delivered flowers! And getting those flowers from her not only showed me what a considerate person she is, but also that she valued our friendship. We're super good friends now, what regular readers of my blog will recognize as a "Tier One Friend". Finally, this diagnosis happened a few months after starting a new job. I was surprised at how kind and accommodating my new boss was.
Another surprise in 2011 was that my mother got ill and entered assisted living. My mother constantly surprised me. I thought she was going to hold out indefinitely to remain in her house. But what a surprise when she told me she didn't like being alone, knew she needed help, and wanted to move to assisted living. Once in assisted living I was expecting her to be a disaster. She was a bit of a solitary person and I didn't think she would make friends and attend activities at the facility. She surprised me again. While she wasn't a social butterfly, she did make friends and go to events, in moderation.
I surprised my mom by getting her a canary to keep her company. I expected her to reject the bird as too much trouble. Surprise! She loved that little bird and it became a big focus of her life. I actually don't like birds very much, probably because I'm a little afraid of them. But when my mother passed away I inherited the bird. Well, guess what. I love that bird. Another surprise!
More recently, this past weekend in fact, I was happily surprised by a couple of people. I lead a hike for an outdoors club that I'm a member of. When I met one of the participants, she had on, not hiking boots but sneakers, and she was completely made up in makeup. I didn't think physically she would be up to the hike. Also, the first impression that she made to me was that she was a bit of an oddball. Was I surprised! I spoke with her off and on the entire day and she was a wonderful, interesting person. And she had absolutely no problem physically keeping up on the hike.
There was another woman who met up with our hiking group in the middle of the day. She was an older lady who, quite frankly, was a bit of a pain leading up to the hike. She called me a couple of times, hemmed and hawed about where we were going, when we had to be there, the weather, what we were doing, etc... When we finally met up with her and we began talking and walking I found her to be a completely kind and intelligent woman with lots of fun observations. She even went out to lunch with us. And by the way, during the hike we were surprised to see a flock of wild turkeys, a gigantic turtle and deer. I actually gasped in surprise a couple of times.
And being a court reporter, I'm surprised with almost every matter that comes before my judge in the courtroom. The person who sometimes looks like a hobo, will often be the best parent. Conversely, sometimes the person dressed to the nines will be the abusive drug addict.
And while I don't want to be surprised with a broken furnace this winter, I will say that I still love surprises. I've learned that I'm not going to get surprises through parties or gifts. I'm going to be surprised, happily always, by the course my life is taking and the people who populate it.
