I forget what movie it was, but one of the main characters was this wise old Native American man who was considered a sage in his community. He had an easy going manner and you couldn’t help but like him. If I had to describe his attitude toward life I’d use one of my favorite descriptors: He lived with divine nonchalance.
I think of that as a kind of faith, a trust that everything is as it should be, whether it’s what you wanted or not.
One day he decided it was a good day to die and he went off to the mountain top to offer his life to the Great Spirit. He performed his ritual, burned his herbs, did his chant and stretched out on his sacred rug to wait for the Great Spirit to take him.
But it seemed the Great Spirit had other plans. So after a day or so of waiting, he made his way down the mountain to return to his tribe. “What happened?” one of the men who greeted him asked.
He shrugged, and with a little smile said, “Sometimes the magic works; sometimes it don’t.”
I never forgot that. Despite our best efforts, sometimes the magic doesn’t work. And when it doesn’t, the best you can do is shrug, smile, and carry on.