We live in an unpredictable world. Take that environmental meeting at Copenhagen for starters. Has the conference a workable plan for the environment? How do we know it’s    workable? Those ecological scientists struggle to keep up with the changing face of Mother Earth—so can the politicians really know what to do? And if politicians say they’ll do something, will it ever happen when they get back home?

It’s the same for world finance. There’s a horrid threat out there in the massive debt levels incurred by the USA, Britain, Eire, Greece, and Iceland, to name a few of the most shaky economies. The rest of the world is at severe risk of a financial meltdown. “But surely not China?” you say. Don’t you believe it. If Americans (and then the Europeans) stop buying Chinese goods, what will happen to millions of Chinese workers? It doesn’t take much more fiscal nonsense for a billion nice but poor people to be thrown out of work across the globe.

Feeling anxious yet? How about your retirement? “I’m not old enough to think about retiring,” you say. Fair enough—but are you going to be able to look after Grandma and old Uncle Bob when their state pension packs up and breathes its last? Come to think of it, is your own financial situation sufficiently predictable for them to rely on you?

Did you see that disaster movie 2012? In it there was plenty of doom and gloom to go all round. Global warming—you haven’t seen a half of it yet! Drought, floods, tsunamis, earthquakes, volcanoes erupting, to say nothing of crop failures all over the place. Yes, it’s happening right now.  Yet people sweetly think, “There’s nothing really wrong.” That’s the ostrich mentality. These 2012 predictions are a good reason to hide your head in the sand. Find a nice place to shop in, or a great movie to watch…nothing is really going to happen.

Life is truly unpredictable. Tiger Woods hits a tree not a birdie. The White House is invaded by reality-show contestants. [ …  insert your own example, please.] And then, gosh darn, you break up with your boy-/girl-friend (the swine!) even though it was only last Thursday night that you exchanged eternity bangles and both swore always to remain true forever ’n’ ever, and breathlessly kissed each other until your lips were sore.

WODEN SAYS: We get what we ask for.

We live in an unpredictable world because it was made that way for our benefit. Having come down here to learn lessons, we are daily provided by the forces of the universe with big and small challenges that we didn’t foresee.

I’m not just talking about negative experiences. We get plenty of those, but sometimes we can see them coming, as admitted by the disgraced NBA referee Tim Donaghy, who was caught betting on the basketball matches he was refereeing. Remember, the unpredictable can also be as sweet as meeting a potential future life-partner when you both have an hour to kill, sitting in an airport, waiting for a plane that’s overshot its destination by 150 miles.

So, let’s deal first with the airport scenario. Two people, free from romantic attachments to anyone else, both eager to settle down with someone nice, are given a gift, or so it seems, of an hour to get acquainted. They each have a business card on which to write their mobile/cell phone number legibly. The flight attendant would be willing to shuffle the seats to put the two of them together. Go on, paint a nice, rosy picture. Dream that you are one of them.

Now, are you going to laugh off the delay, or scowl and complain about “these people” who keep on making your life a misery? You’ve each got about thirty seconds to impress the other,  before he or she pulls out the novel/ laptop/ Blackberry  to occupy the wasted time. You will succeed in attracting or repelling the other person by your attitude. You will get what you asked for.

Now imagine the same delay takes place and you find yourself on your own. Your reaction can be equally positive or negative. The unpredictable happened. But your soul is still an unconditionally loving and positive soul. Will your soul choose a positive response or a negative one? Either way is fine with the universe. I’ll say that again in case you missed it. Either way is fine with the universe. There’s no right or wrong way. If you choose to be negative, your soul may experience something new about negativity and, if it wishes, can learn a lesson from it. If you choose to react positively, your soul is experiencing the power and wonder of positivity.

So when the unpredictable happens—a typhoon wipes out your beach house in Bali, the ozone layer isn’t there to protect you in Sydney, your job disappears overnight in Beijing, old Uncle Bob shows up on your doorstep, or your marriage hits a rock—how will you respond?

If you respond with spiritual understanding that this is “just a lesson,” it will help. If you can get others to do the same, it will help even more. If you can persuade society to adopt a positive attitude, the negativity may even go away. Start now.