Turning left…

Last night Joe and I decided to watch one of our favorite movies - The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. It’s a lovely film about a bunch of elderly British people in various circumstances who decide to relocate to a hotel for those in their golden years in India (Jaipur). The hotel, marketed as a high end sort of retirement destination, is actually in a “state of development” that doesn’t meet their expectations.

The characters, including the hotel’s young proprietor, develop through the story as they adjust to the change in their circumstances and other challenges. One of the most miserable of the lot, who in the end leaves her husband and heads back to the UK, at one point en route exclaims how grateful she is that she and her husband “turned left” when they boarded their flight from London. Meaning how happy she was that they were sitting in first class. When she suddenly decides to leave her marriage and go home, she exclaims again that she is “turning left” again. This time it has a very different meaning.

We all “turn left” sometimes in life. And these are the times of our greatest growth. Whether it is leaving a relationship, changing a job or career, or boarding a plane for a great adventure into the unknown, these are the times where fear and excitement seem almost like the same thing.

That’s what we’re doing today. Turning left…Read more