I love watching episodes of Grand Designs.

It’s a British show that has been running since April 1999, where people are followed during the creation of their dream home.

The show always starts with the plans and the dreams and the location, and usually ends with the finished object.

And it lasts around 45 minutes.

One of the things that are so cool about Grand Designs, and something I never realized before, is that it clearly shows how everything is always solved.

Every project obviously comes with its own disasters and setbacks and unexpected problems, sometimes not really dramatic and sometimes totally crushing, but the property hardly ever stays unfinished forever.

It happens that 4, 5, or even 8 years of building (and lots of moments where nothing happens because there’s no money) are covered in those 45 minutes, and in this very condensed timeframe you get to see how seemingly insurmountable obstacles are always dealt with.

Time and time again there are tremendous amounts of disappointment, stress, worry, and hopelessness, but there always seems to be a way out.

It’s just that nobody could see it.

This is SUCH a great metaphor for our lives.

Or, well, mine, at least.

All those times when I seemed to be in a spot so incredibly tight I thought I’d definitely never find my way out again.

All those problems and challenges I thought about for weeks without finding a solution, yet they were all resolved.

All those sleepless nights, all those moments where it felt like my life was coming to an end, all those hours and hours of agony, and yet… here I am.

Most of those once huge, horrifying hurdles are nothing but a faint memory.

This is so, so, so valuable to realize.

We have no clue about the Grand Design we’re living in.

Not even the tiniest bit of a little piece of a clue.

And how could we?

Our lives are built in real-time.

How could we ever see the solutions, the answers, and the many miraculous turns that life will create while we simply keep going?

We can’t.

But they’ll be created for us just the same.

Isn’t this the most amazing show?

—

(Photo by @josholalde, for Unsplash)