An Story Telling Exercise in Cryptics - Go Figure I

"A funny thing happened on the way to ..."

You know the stories that start with such, those stories could get filed right inbetween the "Once upon a time ..." and "What had happened was ..."

"Once upon a time..." begins a "tale" while "What had happened was ..." is the usual start phrase for a very tall tale or excuses. "A funny thing happened on the way to ..." does not handsomely fit a well defined path to stories mostly because you are left wondering if there is truth to the story or if it was made up or both. It is even puzzling the more that most of the stories with such beginnings are not funny - and you are left wondering if it was funny to the author, teller or speaker. Are they yanking your chain; are they being ironic?

Funny or not, things happen on the way to anywhere and the lessons are where the importance lay - that is the key to any story - the lessons learned.

And so it was yesterday for me, it happened.

I have been considering my choices, weighing my options even since the week before. It was obvious I could not continue trying to fill all roles; a clear choice had to be made. It would have been easy if the three were equal or seemed equally comparable. One option had more immediate tangible benefits, the second had a little less margin of tangibles compared to the first but promises a path that leads to the kind of future I imagined for us. The third option was going to stay regardless of what I decided for the first two; I had to keep it at least for the legacy effects and the relationships involved. Once again I had apples, oranges and mixed fruit juice to compare - and the sizes were so different that comparing was not going to be easy. Maybe the apple should be dropped, afterall I have had my share of apples this year and I don't believe it is the season for the fruit anyway. Maybe the orange, it is hard work to peel it before eating it and even if I chose to squeeze - still some work.

So it was for a few days, I had moved back and forth on the choices and I could only move forward with two out of three. It was not undoable to go with the three but there are consequences to greed that I am not ready to suffer. I treasure my sanity and I could use some free time. The one week I had to really experience the three had other external pressures thrown in for good measures. I had to explain to a close friend why I needed focus and still they were too close to their wants to see my point. It was not a waste though, it was a big reveal to me to see through the eyes of another and see why I should make and communicate my choices clearly.

Friday came and so did the "final answer". I did not have to make a choice afterall; once was already made for me. "We wanted to assure you it had nothing to do with your performance and we will like to get your help with ... but we could not afford that during that critical part of the year. We hope you understand and we look forward to continuing the relationship and working on the other ..."

Phew! - What a relief! I was saved from having to make that tough and awkward phone call; I was called. It still amazes me that funny things continue to happen on the way to making decisions and on the way to leading a life. Funny things like this happen often on the way to somewhere to me. That is the funny part --> It Happened To Me <-- the funnier part is that it happened to me "AGAIN". Just like waking up without alarm by 04:00 because you have a flight to catch at 07:00 and had turned in late last night by 23:50 (without setting an alarm and without having your bags packed and needed two hours to get ready and drive to the airport).

AWESOME.

A funny thing happened on the way to a new opportunity once upon a time, what had happened was a choice was made for me.