Surprise, Surprise, Surprise

In 1964, the Gomer Pyle Show became a popular Sitcom. A spin-off from the Andy Griffith Show. Gomer Pyle, played by Jim Nabors, a naïve, good-natured gas station attendant, joins the U.S. Marine Corps and is stationed at Camp Henderson, California reporting to drill sergeant Vince Carter. Gomer Pyle’s signature declaration was his honest and innocent, statement, “Surprise, Surprise, Surprise” …when declaring something different than what the observer (mostly sergeant Vince Carter) expected the outcome to be. A comedy sitcom, with a simple message of obstacles and outcomes of experiences which may appear ‘bad’ that would be ‘good’ and ‘no’ that turned to ‘yes’.

No surprise, in this time in our lives, we still experience good and bad, yes and no, and more noticeably at a certain age, aware of not this OR that, but this AND that options! We can indeed have AND THAT instead of only OR THAT. Pondering this, my client Jackie, newly retired business owner and serial entrepreneur, and I were discussing the Surprise ‘"and’' revelation, when she stated, “We have reached an age when we can include AND into our experience.

Surprise, surprise, surprise. A place does not need to be awful - It can be awful in some ways AND awesome in others. There are nuances to each experience. It is rarely one way or another. We can suffer with a disease AND find our hearts opening wide in gratitude for the people who help us with healing. We can lose a loved one, feeling very sad AND feel relieved they no longer suffer. 

We can hold two or more emotions at one time. We can see the bigger picture of the meaning in events that may seem bleak.

I love the story of, “is it so?"

A farmer's son comes home with a wild horse and says, "this is the best day of my life." 

Farmer says, "we'll see." Next day, son falls off the horse and breaks his leg. He says, "this is the worst day of my life." Farmer says, "we'll see." Army comes through to take young man to fight a battle, but he can't go because of broken leg. Son says, "this is the best day of my life." Farmer says, "we'll see." And so, the story continues - we never know what an event has in store for us. Could be the best and could be the worst. 

Surprise, surprise, surprise - we can hold the bigger picture in our expanded picture of life as we grow older as we add AND to our outcomes.” Thanks Jackie, well written. 

Life will continue to surprise us at every stage of living. AND we can decide between the best and worst days…we’ll see. 

With love,

Hilda