Life is What Happens When You’re Busy Making Other Plans

We’ve all heard John Lennon’s words: Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.

It’s one of those quotes that sounds wise and a little poetic — until life pulls the rug out from under you. Then it stops sounding like poetry and starts sounding like the plain truth.

On November 29, 2023, my world shifted forever.

I had just celebrated 63 years of marriage. My business was wrapping up one of its best years. I was enjoying life, proud of what I had built, and genuinely grateful for the journey. Then suddenly, my husband was gone. His death left me shocked, heartbroken, and face-to-face with a reality I hadn’t planned for.

Life had once again made its own plans for me.

In the middle of grief, I also had to make decisions about my business. For decades I had created gift baskets by hand and delivered many of them locally as well as shipping across the country. But I knew I couldn’t continue at the same pace. So I adapted — adding dropshipped gifts, cutting down on the time required, giving myself the flexibility to keep doing what I loved while easing into a new rhythm of life.

Then a botched cataract surgery left me blind in one eye for two months. On top of everything else, it was almost cruel. But it also convinced me that local delivery had to go. Sometimes life makes your decisions for you whether you’re ready or not.

For a while, it felt like I had found solid footing again.

Then lightning literally struck. One of my main dropship suppliers had their facility hit by lightning, resulting in a fire that destroyed much of it. Suddenly I was back to uncertainty. Would they rebuild? Would they reopen? There were no assurances.

Once again life reminded me that stability is often an illusion. Once again I had to pivot, evolve, and adjust.

That’s when Lennon’s words kept echoing through my mind.

We plan. We dream. We organize. And then life interrupts with its own script. Sometimes it’s heartbreaking. Sometimes it’s simply frustrating. But within those interruptions there is also room for growth, resilience, and unexpected new beginnings.

I won’t pretend it’s easy. Losing my husband was the hardest thing I’ve ever faced. The blindness and the business challenges piled on top of grief were almost more than I could carry. But I’ve learned something important through all of it: we don’t have to have everything figured out. Life will happen whether we’re ready or not. We just have to keep moving, keep adapting, and allow ourselves to find new ways forward.

For me adapting hasn’t meant forgetting the pain or pretending everything is fine. It has meant learning to carry loss while still choosing to move forward. It has meant finding creativity in reinvention. And it has meant recognizing that while I cannot control what life throws my way, I can choose how I live through it.

If you find yourself in a season where life has derailed your plans, know this: you are not alone. You can bend without breaking. You can adapt. And sometimes the life that happens while you’re busy making other plans turns out to be the most honest and meaningful one of all.

I’m still here. Still making plans. Still showing up one day at a time.

And I’m not finished yet.