Resist chronology. It will always try to impose itself.~Verlyn Klinkenborg (From Several Short Sentences About Writing)

I'm partial to linearity, chronology. Give me a straight line and let me follow it. A to B to C. Beginning. Middle. End. No curve balls. Please no curves. I dream of hopping on a bike and following the cobalt thread of the the ocean--going forward in a straight line. No thinking about where I need to turn. But even that thinking is fantastical. I live on a sphere. Curves are my reality.

A few years ago when I was still working as a counselor, a colleague came to my office. Said she was moving to California. That's where she was from. "I want to be closer to my family," she said. "I miss them." I asked, "Did you get another job?" "No," she said. "And I'm not a hundred percent sure it's the best thing to do, leaving what I know here and re-locating to the other coast. But I have to try. I won't know if it's right if I don't try."  I said, "That seems pretty scary." "It is," she said. "But I have a plan. It works every time I'm feeling uncertain."  "Tell me," I said.

"I just do the next right thing." She told me she surely made long range plans. "But I take the day in pieces. I do what's next. Even with interruptions and the unexpected, I do what's next. That way I stay peaceful without a lot of anxiety. And that's how I'll handle the move. I'll do the next thing."

"That makes sense," I said.

I'll never forget that interaction with my colleague. She helped me learn to resist chronology, even when it always tries to impose itself. 

My colleague did make it to California. Found a job. Married her beloved. Embraced the curves.

I like this quote by  Alan Noble, from his book On Getting Out of Bed, The Burden And Gift Of Living:

When your days are filled with mundane tasks, none of which are worth posting on social media or even talking about, it can feel impossible to build momentum, to feel like your life is going anywhere for any purpose. This is precisely why we must see that each choice to do the next thing is an act of worship, and therefore fundamentally good. Feeding your pets is an act of worship. Brushing your teeth is. Doing the dishes. Getting dressed. Going to work. Insofar as each of these actions assumes that this life in this fallen world is good and worth living despite suffering, they are acts of faith in God. Choose to do the next thing before and unto God…that is all you must ever do and all you can do. It is your spiritual act of worship.