#80 Unpredictability

،مرحبا من دبي

Hello from Dubai,

It's 38 degrees at 10pm, and I'm sat on the balcony of my best friend's flat looking out at a serene marina. It's not where I expected to be this weekend, but it's been a good few days of rest and recuperation.

I began 2024 in the Middle East. On January 1st, I woke up in Doha and spent the day on a lounger by the sea. I became the subject of a conversation going on behind me; "It's clear that he's a happy guy!"

It was an accurate description—I felt blissfully happy, optimistic and excited for the year ahead. Plans included this very place where I've spent the last few days.

Had someone given me a notepad then and asked me to write out ten different possible scenarios for the first six months of the year, none would have matched today's reality.

Even if pressed for a hundred scenarios, thinking of both more positive and negative possibilities, I still wouldn't have captured one which would accurately describe the present.

Life's reality is its unpredictability

Unexpectedly good things happen.

Unexpectedly bad things happen.

What can we do about it?

I could delve into how we're myopic as humans and cover the importance of planning for eventualities.

But the answer is simple and needs no scientific explanation or implementation plan:

Live every day to its fullest.

AJ.

On my bedside table:

• Fiction: Normal People by Sally Rooney (link)

You can now listen to me narrate Plane Thoughts each week: link

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