As those of you know who have been reading the Wow for a while, I pick a theme for every year. 

As you can see from the title of this Wow, the theme for 2019 is “Accept the Unexpected” … to me, a mind-bending twist on “Expect the Unexpected.”

Why is it so mind-bending?

It bends my mind because acceptance can be so hard for me.  With “expect the unexpected” my thoughts get to turn to things like trips to Costco and stocking up on canned goods—catnip for my inner control freak; with acceptance I just get to…accept.

It’s at this point that my brain generally rebels.

Why, then, did I pick it? Well, Joseph Campbell put it better than I ever could. He said, “We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.”

“The life that is waiting for us” is where I got on board with my theme. “The life that is waiting for us” sounded exciting and promising.

It reminded me—as I’m sure many of know—that it’s in the pockets of non-planning that magic often happens.  

Why? Well, you could go with one of my favorite 12-step sayings, which is: “God is not limited by your lack of imagination.” 

Or you could look at it from a physiological point of view, which is that it’s when our minds are relaxed—dare I say, “accepting”? —that we are able to see more possibilities 

With this in mind, I toast your infinite possibilities and wish you a joyful—and unexpected—2019.

P.S. Why this photo with the Wow? Well, adding 2 more dogs to our family this fall was certainly unexpected—if you had told me 10 years ago that the life that was waiting for me had a husband, 2 cats and 3 dogs I would never have believed you… As noted above, however, each addition to my family has brought magic.