If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.
This is a quote from Woody Allen, I believe the original is an old Yiddish proverb “We plan, God laughs.” but you get the idea. Every time I heard this sentence I would laugh, I could always relate to it but not as much as I do right now…
Why so? you may ask. Here is why.
I was flying back to Holland on the 1st of August. My plan was to stay at a friend’s place for a few days, find myself a new room and move in, settle down, get my boxes out of the storage space.
Well… This obviously didn’t happen.
I had made some resolutions over the summer. To do sports regularly, eat less pasta and more vegetables and overall to have a more organized life.
Well… This obviously didn’t happen either. When you fail at the first step, which is finding shelter, it becomes impossible to pursue the other steps.
My parents were flying in the day after me and so I crashed at their hotel for a week before I started house-hopping. (A shout-out to all the people who opened up their doors and couches to me and the many more who offered to do the same, I am eternally grateful. Once I get the keys to my room, there will be a party and you will all be honorary guests!)
I really improved my survival skills in this past month, as I didn’t even have a suitcase and lived off plastic bags with only a few pairs of clothes. It’s not easy being a Nomad! (If you are a future International Studies student and you don’t understand this sentence, just wait around for the upcoming Global History lectures! And the Mongols! Okay sorry, I’ll stop making inside jokes…)
I also wanted to write many, many posts during this month about how it is to start university, how El-Cid was in my experience etc. but… Well yes, I was busy being homeless.
I can’t complain though, since the last stop that this house-hopping brought me to is… Paris!
Side-note: I did find a room; I’m only waiting for the 1st of September to receive the keys and enjoying Paris in the meantime. Thank God the pressure and the stress is off my shoulders, I won’t lie at one point I may have had a nervous breakdown by a canal and I may have had some shots with a bartender at 2pm.
Hoping all the best for the still homeless.
Au revoir, with love from Paris!
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I was thinking along a different line of what this saying meant. I thought that it might mean that if you have plans, it can all change with a blink of an eye whether it is an illness, injury or even death. I don’t mean to sound morbid. I guess why I thought it meant that is because I used to go to a church that would use proverbs such as this one along with Bible quotes, and then say things like the wants and interests you are aspiring to don’t matter as much as God does. I used to take it a criticism from my former church to have any goals or interests. But I like how you pointed it out that if you can’t do the first step, you won’t achieve the next ones. To get to B you must do A first. So, now I am looking at this quote as making a point about being honest and realistic about plans and goals. My original thought was apparently way off. But, for me when people throw parables or quotes that I don’t fully understand or never heard before, I always thought that people were trying to trick me.
Here is how I interpret it Ellen. God is in control. Just look at the mess our world is. We can pretend and strive to control our lives, but that ultimately ends up not working because we are merely human. God has a THE plan for our lives that we are often too small minded/dumb/distracted to see. So I interpret the quote as God chuckling at us when we think we have things figured out when in fact only he knows how things will work.
Reblogged this on ilenstoright and commented:
Laugh. For the sentiment, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EQXVwWN6yc8&noredirect=1
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