What’s your response to prepaying for activities that don’t manifest?  I wonder…

Before recent events I would have said that my reaction to paying for an “unused experience” would be frustration coupled with a low level hissy fit.  Recent health issues with our son have altered my response.  Just completing his senior year in high school, his planned celebration activities included Prom, senior week, All Night Live, graduation, parties and so on.  He required tickets and attire to some of these events well in advance.  In other words, we prepaid for future events with the expectation of him attending.

He didn’t. Being recently diagnosed with a debilitating case of celiac disease, he has not been doing much of anything, much less attending graduation, All Night Live, or  Senior week.

Plans and expectations have a soft feel now. It’s clear to me that when I pay for a future experience – it is a gamble, just an idea in un-manifest form.  Plans are best held lightly and present moment experiences are the real deal, the opening act on stage.

What’s your relationship to prepaid plans that don’t happen? How do you relate to lost currency on experiences unseen? I wonder…