IN LIGHT OF

The words, in light of, are interesting preface words. They put an asterisk next to all that follows them, as if to say the criteria, the circumstance, response, norm or plan has now been altered, changed, redirected or refocused.

Those words sometimes are used in a court of law when new evidence is brought forward. The in light ofs in life can be varied. Good and bad. Accepted or fought against. They are the things that often make us reconsider, take an alternative route, change gears or even come to a complete stop.

I thought about how much of life is constant. It requires us to be a bit flexible, buoyant, resilient, and sometimes become a contortionist. Those ways come way easier to some people than others.

We bought a new bottle of cabernet sauvignon recently. A label we had never tried before. It came recommended, in place of a more expensive and favored bottle we like, by the party store employee. Since there was a significant cost difference between what we went in for and what he suggested, we opted for his less expensive strongly suggested one. In light of this gentleman's words, and the fact that it was about a third of the cost, we went another direction - we purchased his wine.

A step further. Just today, based on the fact that I texted my husband and said we needed to open that bottle of wine tonight on the patio, he said we needed something for dinner that went with it. His suggestion, veal marsala. That sounded great to me. Perfect taste combination! The problem was that we lived in a town of 55,000 in the Midwest and veal is not commonly stocked in the grocery stores or meat markets.

 After calling five stores, including two meat markets, to find a scaloppini cut of veal, I was informed it would have be ordered. That did not work with my dinner plans for tonight, what I wanted, had a hankering for, and needed to make to satisfy Doug and I's taste buds. That bottle of wine was needing its veal marsala companion.

 So, in light of; 1) that I didn't plan ahead as is my norm and 2), that the right cut of veal could not be found without a 3 day wait, I was forced to alter my plan. I would have to make chicken marsala instead. I would settle, though just a bit, but still get a taste of something good with that bottle of wine.

 It happens in life in huge measures, in startling devastatingly poignant ways. We think we have years ahead of us, but instead we get a diagnosis of disease, have a heart attack, our mate dies unexpectantly, our child makes a horrifically bad choice. In light of those circumstances our path is altered, changed, redirected.

In light of, the game-changing-monkey-wrench phrase, is undeniably a very present player in the minutia of life and a huge impactor in the big stuff. Will I bend my ways, my will, my choices, my thoughts, my heart, and ultimately my responses to it? Can I change gears, go with the flow, accept a new direction? Sometimes it is much easier said than done. Much.