The way to be wrong is to think you control it

I found the below quote from John Steinbeck. It is an excerpt, the rest can be found here.

"When I was very young and the urge to be someplace else was on me, I was assured by mature people that maturity would cure this itch. When years described me as mature, the remedy prescribed was middle age. In middle age I was assured that greater age would calm my fever and now that I am fifty-eight perhaps senility will do the job. Nothing has worked . . . once a bum always a bum. I fear the disease is incurable. I set this matter down not to instruct others but to inform myself. . .

Once a journey is designed, equipped, and put in process, a new factor enters and takes over. A trip, a safari, an exploration, is an entity, different from all other journeys. It has personality, temperament, individuality, uniqueness. A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policing, and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us. Tour masters, schedules, reservations, brass-bound and inevitable, dash themselves to wreckages on the personality of the trip. Only when this is recognized can the blown-in-the-glass bum relax and go along with it. Only then do the frustrations fall away. In this a journey is like marriage. The certain way to be wrong is to think you control it. I feel better now, having said this, although only those who have experienced it will understand it."

- John Steinbeck

Interestingly I said in a previous post that I was going to try to stop trying to control situations and accept things as they come. Finding this quote now was ironic. I'm far from being a traveler, but this quote I think can be applied to many things, including the journey of life in general. The feeling of anticipation of things to come or the feeling of excitement while looking forward to any event. The emotions which you always assume time will take care of. Sometimes it does and sometimes not so much.

Although I'm only 25 (for 3 more days) so how could I know. That's what I mean. Giving up control to let the Journey lay itself out to me. Giving up control and letting the cards be dealt. Sometimes I have problems doing this, but I have recently been reminded to be happy with what there is. Stop wanting and longing for things, and you will be happy with what you have.

I sat outside this evening relaxing, enjoying the air as the evening rolled in. Just me in a chair with a book, and nothing else, except a glass of wine. It was nice. The breeze came in from the west, and although I couldn't smell it because of my stuffed up nose, I am assuming that even after the mile it traveled from the ocean it still had the subtle smell that reminds you that the ocean is indeed there. I read for about 20 minutes and I watched the clouds block out the sun as it went down.

By the way, since I started my New Approach, things have been much easier.