It's a good life if we just let it be.
If the car won't start I get to walk, I get to take public transportation, I get to ride my bicycle, I get to change my plans. If it's too far to walk or there is no public transportation (or my bike's tyres are flat, et cetera), I get to have some extra time with myself. This can be time that I get to make choices about how to respond to my situation.
When I realize I GET to do these things I can respond creatively. When I think I've GOT to do the lot, I dull my responsive creativity (if I don't block it altogether).
If other people are waiting for me I get to phone them to let them know my situation. If there is no phone, I get to practice releasing that part of my situation that is beyond my control.
I get to practice letting go of useless thinking.
If I am too busy and get sick, I get to learn a consequence of never slowing down and giving myself time. My body forces me to slow down. Sometimes a body has to come close to death before it catches its user's attention.
We get to look at our lives with appreciation and gratitude for constant learning and challenge, or with resentment and frustration at uncertainty and change.
It can be as simple as the difference between I get to and I've got to.
One consequence of appreciation and gratitude is a sense of being part of our lives, of having intimate connection with all our interactions in our world. When we're deficient in gratitude and stunted in appreciation, we experience resentment, frustration, chronic irritation, and a sense of futility, only a sampler of useless and mis-aligned thinking.
When we chronically indulge ourselves in useless thinking, we isolate and exhaust ourselves. We alienate ourselves from any sense of wholehearted participation in our very own lives. We cripple our spontaneity and our joy. This kind of impaired living creates constant suspicion that they, whoever they are, are out to get us.
What kind of life do I want?
Do I choose to get to do what my life offers me?
Or do I habitually choose to feel I've got to do it?