Thinking Ahead

Earlier this month when I was up in Massachusetts at the Berkshire Botanical Garden,  I came across one of the garden spots designed by Adam Weinberg of Second Nature Garden Design. Unfortunately, I only took one photo of the garden- the gigantic green leaves of the Japanese butterbur. My sister put her hand on one so we could see comparatively how really big the leaves were. But it wasn't just the garden that struck me. It was the sign with a brief explanation from Weinberg about his creative process in designing it. I took a photo of the sign because I loved this line:

There was not much thinking ahead, when I do that it usually hurts. 

I'm not sure why, but I remember chuckling and telling myself to snap the photo so I could revisit the line.  And here I am. Upon reflection, I think I was drawn to the idea we often overthink and over-plan. We can become distracted by what we're going to do and never get to the doing.

It's reminiscent of teaching fourth grade writing. We used to spend a lot of time teaching students to plan their essays before they wrote them. By this I mean essays for the state writing test. Before you knew it, students were spending half the testing time drawing the perfect graphic organizer, erasing each uneven line and starting over again. Or they would sit over a planning sheet feeling obligated to try to fill it before writing the essay, a process that seems painful to them.

What about when you try to plan a vacation itinerary right down to each last stop, each meal, and how you're going to spend each minute of the day. Then, you get going and you're more worried about your planned schedule than you are enjoying the actual vacation.

Ever try to plan out your meals for the week before you go to the grocery store, and then you get there and everything goes haywire? You planned chicken, but there's a really nice steak on sale. Or you planned your breakfast smoothies on bananas and strawberries, but there was a spike in price on the bananas and strawberries look like crap?

I've always been a planner. Not crazy obsessive planner. But a planner. Over the years I've passed up good jobs, seemingly lucrative, but without predictable pay. That doesn't work for me. I like to know how much is coming on payday so I know I can plan my expenses and my budget for leisure.

I guess I'll never completely be a fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kid of girl. But I am learning to be more flexible. I like to plan a framework and then see what happens within that framework. It's all about go with the flow... within reason. Of course some planning is good too. To a certain degree it's a necessity of responsibility.  But let's be careful not to over plan. We can get so hung up on planning for the future that the present loses it's life. Don't let today pass you by while you're busy thinking about tomorrow, right? Remember what the dalai lama said,

There are only two days in the year that we cannot do anything, yesterday and tomorrow.