Outlines and novels create great metaphors for describing life for us to think about.
Outlines are written with certainty. With authority and structure. There is logic and sequence.
Reading a novel is full of discovery. What happens in the next chapter is of interest to us. That is why we read them completely. Never quite sure what turn a story may take. With many characters weaving in and out of the story.
Too often we think about our lives as if they should conform to an outline. Certain to occur with our dreams, goals, and outcomes clearly defined before they happen and as if they were already realized. With certainty, we describe how others or situations doomed us to failure.
What we don’t understand clearly, is that our lives themselves are full of discovery. We each create our own novel by living it. That as much as we want something to happen, it rarely does in the manner we thought. Surprised and sometimes disappointed by what comes next.
We don’t clearly see the chapters of our lives as recording our progress. In some chapters little happens and in others much more.
Writing a book itself is quite hard to do. Just like living our lives while taking care of those around us.
Be grateful for small wins and major disappointments. Much of our lives are made up of these with major wins far and few between for all of us. Our own life’s novel is created page by page and never cover to cover.
Life never conforms to an outline. As much as we want it to or as hard as we try. Enjoy each page for what it offers as we move on to write something new on the next blank page that faces us.