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Expect the unexpected
THERE really is not much point in thinking that you know for certain what is going to happen.
You can never be certain. Things can trundle along as usual for a very long time and then out of the blue something happens that can shake up your model of the world.
Long before we came to Angus, my husband Andy was asked to run a conference at The Burn. We were happily living in Edinburgh without any thought of leaving. But he came home and said "I have seen the place where I want to live."
Then a few years later the job of Bursar came free, and he immediately applied for it. Between that application though and the interview, he became very seriously ill with an extremely rare and debilitating auto immune disease.
Put simply, it is an illness whereby the body attacks itself and lots of things go wrong at the same time. He was ill and mystified, as were the doctors who were treating him.
Eventually when his kidneys were on the point of total collapse, a young Asian-looking doctor diagnosed his illness, and the correct treatment was started.
However the treatment was almost as uncomfortable as the illness, and by the time the interviews came, he was not looking his best, but was very much on the mend.
Fortunately they trusted that his illness would not return, and we were lucky enough to be catapulted into heaven, which is how we regard our tenure here.
That was eight years ago and the illness is almost forgotten. Last week we had a bunch of senior research doctors staying and studying at The Burn.
One of the consultants came into his office. She was very pretty and very pregnant, and said she thought she had met him before. He assumed she must have visited The Burn, but in fact, it turned out that she was the young doctor who had diagnosed his illness. We always refer to her as the woman who saved his life.
It was such a thrill to meet her again. It was so unexpected but a complete delight. We took photographs and thanked her properly. Of course she is very successful in her line of work as well as about to produce her third child.
On a completely different matter, as I have mentioned before, I am hoping to get my book published and had high hopes that I would get it accepted quite soon, but on Thursday I heard that the publishers didn't want it, but they were kind to me and I wasn't too disappointed.
I shall certainly keep trying. Then early the next morning I was walking the dog, deep in thought and feeling a little sorry for myself, when suddenly I spotted four otters. They were running up the main drive.
Mother, two babies, and Father bringing up the rear. The dog and I stopped short. I was thrilled and delighted, the dog was too shocked and surprised to chase, and the otters were in a state of indecision.
We were all frozen in time for what seemed like ages, but was probably only seconds. They are so shy and they were so out of place, it was just a totally unique moment and the wonder of it was not lost on me. I knew the theme of the day was to be "expect the unexpected".
I returned home delighted by early morning surprise, only to find an eccentric moth collector in the garden. He had set up an extraordinary contraption in the garden to catch moths. He was horrified to hear that I thought of moths as "nasty brown things."
More education for me. There were 18 different varieties of moths in my garden and one of them he had never seen before, even though he'd been studying moths all his life.
So once again I learned the lesson, there is so much to wonder at in this world that it really is a waste of time and energy moaning when things don't turn out that way we want them to. Expect the unexpected and the adventure of life will unfurl in front of your eyes.
- Jo Middlemiss is a Personal Life Coach who works from home in Edzell. She can be contacted on (01356) 648 329.
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Weather for Brechin
Friday 25 May 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: 10 C to 14 C
Wind Speed: 8 mph
Wind direction: East
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Sunny
Temperature: 8 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 12 mph
Wind direction: East
