You Deserve Some Unexpected Surprises Too

The greatest thing you can do is surprise yourself! - Steve Martin.

On a lousy Tuesday afternoon, I walked to an eatery opposite my workplace for a snack.

I tripped over a small rock and fell forward on my face to the concrete. I picked myself up, dusted out, and continued to go.

I called my sister to share what had just happened.

I told her, “You won’t believe this. I managed to hit the ground head down.”

She followed up with, “OMG, where are you now?”.

To which I replied: “I am OK. Just waiting for my extra cheese sandwich order.”

With an overwhelming surprised tone, she asked, “So you still went for it? How did you do that? I mean….why did you do that? If I were you, I would have walked back into the office embarrassed.”

I replied: “Oh, Well, I didn’t want to let a rock ruin my plans.”

That day, the sandwich tasted extra good because I took the effort to eat it anyway besides the obstacle on my way!

A sweet surprise I gave myself in the moment of weakness!

Treat yourself with unexpected surprises

I was going through difficult emotions while waiting to marry my decade-long boyfriend. It seemed like an impossible feat with all things and people out of control. The wait seemed to last forever. There was no sign of light at the end of the tunnel. It looked pitch black inside and out!

I felt super depressed and desperate to hear our wedding bells ring. The future looked so bleak!

I was running very low on hope when I called my sister. I gave her a heads-up about my sad mood and my upcoming short visit to her house.

That evening, as she opened the door, she stood there with a gaping look, her eyeballs scanning me from top to bottom.

I was wearing a bright blue dress with my face and hair glowing in the freshly done make-over.

She exclaimed: I was not expecting to see you like this. You are looking great and happy.

We continued to have a beautiful conversation as always over a hot pot of tea.

I chose to dress up that evening only to surprise myself.

Maybe to confuse my tired mind by showing it a face that is terribly in sync with the feelings of my heart.

To make the index of the mind unrecognizable to the mind itself ?!

My choice to surprise myself changed the context for that entire evening.

Nonetheless, I felt proud blowing away my sister’s mind in addition to my own.

Laughing hopelessly revives hope in your life

At a restaurant with my then-boyfriend, we were eating a whole buffet meal mercilessly to escape the truth of the moment.

The harsh reality was that marriage was not in the cards for us. And we couldn’t do anything about it.

Our conversations were becoming so hard, helplessly draining our hopeful hearts. We had nothing to say as we stared at each other. My eyes welled up with uninvited tears thinking this might be our last happy[?!] meeting.

In an awkward moment like that, I quickly distracted by pulling us both away from it by saying, “oh wait, did my eye make-up smudge?” and corrected it looking at the phone.

We both laughed hopelessly.

As we left the place, I refilled the empty plates on the table with my broken hopes. And felt revived as I walked out.

p.s: We did go back to the same spot after a year as a newly married couple!

This trick to say and do unexpected things in the most unexpected moments had saved me and my loved one a million tears!!

Surprising myself at unexpected times is now a non-negotiable part of my self-care routine.

It is the unexpected that changes our lives -Unknown.