When your job requires that you open and close a drawbridge and something happens that causes it to malfunction, that’s a bad day. That’s a stressful, paperwork-generating, workmen-crawling-all-over-your-territory type of day. I don’t like those days. I’m having one of those days.
But really, since I didn’t do anything to break one of the most expensive pieces of equipment owned by the City of Seattle, I shouldn’t let it get to me. Nothing has “gone wrong”. Things are just not going according to my plan. It would be arrogant of me to think that my plan was the way things ought to be. I mean, in the grand scheme of things, who am I? If the universe sees fit to drop a bomb in the middle of my flimsy little itinerary, what gives me the right to complain?
Perhaps when I’m feeling as though things have gone wrong, I should try to look at it slightly differently. It’s change. Change happens. I need to focus on better ways to identify and adapt to change, rather than panic or grouse or be bothered by things I cannot control.
When you think about it, being rattled by change is about as silly as shouting at the waves for crashing up on the beach. They’re going to wash up no matter how big a tantrum I might choose to throw, so perhaps it’s time to stop making an existential fool of myself.
While I am capable of making choices in my life (and believe me, I’ve made some doozies), I am not the driver of destiny’s car. Getting too full of myself and thinking I’m steering this thing is what causes me to feel disappointment, frustration, and irritation. All of those feelings are generated by a sense of how things are “supposed” to turn out, when in fact, I haven’t a freakin’ clue what will happen next, so harboring a set of expectations is absurd.
So I guess I’ll let the workmen fix the bridge and accept the fact that one way or another, the universe will take care of itself. Whether I like it or not.
[Image credit: quietwanderings.com]
Leave a Reply