“It’s like this … When you’re going to have a child; it’s like planning a fabulous vacation trip—to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It’s all very exciting. “After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go.

Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, ‘Welcome to Holland.’ “ ‘Holland?!?’ you say. ‘What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! I’m supposed to be in Italy. All my life I’ve dreamed of going to Italy.’

“But there’s been a change in the flight plan. You’ve landed in Holland and there you must stay. “The important thing is … they haven’t taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine, and disease. It’s just a different place.

“So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

“It’s just a different place. But after you’ve been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around, and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills. Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts. “But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they’re all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say, ‘Yes, that’s where I was supposed to go. That’s what I had planned.’ “But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn’t get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things about Holland.”

That's a very good analogy, Tammy. It's good to count our blessings, even though we didn't end up where we planned.

When I was a freshman in college (which was a far as I got!) a teacher assigned us to write down our plans for the next 5-10 years. We had to predict when we'd marry, where live, how much we'd make, how many kids, etc.

Ha! If I had followed my plan I'd be living in California. Instead, I'm living here in peaceful central Utah and will celebrate my 35th wedding anniversary tomorrow.

What's that song Garth Brooks sings about unaswered prayers? Yep, its good we don't always get what we think we want.

hey Tamiloo and Twink ... thanks ...

you both explained it VERY well ... KUDOS to you!!

Thanks for that Tamiloo.....I agree with Twink - it's a good analogy. The story makes me think of the song "The Dance" sung by Garth Brooks. I love that song and it's come to mean alot to me.

And now I'm glad I didn't know
The way it all would end...the way it all would go.
Our lives are better left to chance...
I could have missed the pain
But I'd of had to miss the dance.

There's nothing quite like a good story (or parable) to make an important point. Thanks for that, Tamiloo!