You were supposed to get a different blog today. One that shouts from the rooftops about the people in my tribe. Celebrating them in all their glorious wonder.
You’ll have to wait for that one.
Sometimes life doesn’t go as planned; sometimes life tries to throw you under the bus.
Everything was going fine yesterday until I sat down at the table and proceeded to dump a steaming cup of coffee all over my laptop.
I can still hear myself saying “No, no, no, no!” as I grabbed my computer, tipped it over, pouring coffee all over the floor, the chair and my lap.
You can imagine the flustered activity that came next. Towels, a hair dryer, q-tips, google searching and a whole lot of praying.
As the keypad started to fail and the mouse stopped scrolling, it became clear that I wasn’t going to be able to fix this.
Off to Best Buy I went.
Then to Apple.
(Insert a two hour delay and spontaneous lunch with a friend while waiting for Apple)
I spent a good deal of time in my van, waiting for Apple to call, charging my phone and being grateful that could I still send emails.
Back to Apple.
I went and sat on the on blocks specified for those waiting for an assistant. I looked around at all the stressed out faces surrounding me and wondered how stressed my face looked.
I don’t have a back up of my data.
I started thinking about how dependent we are on our technology. How pained we look and act when something goes wrong with ours. How something as simple as a cup of coffee threatens to ruin our day, our week, our “life”.
It reminded me of my favorite quote from Daniel Webster, words that I live by, for more reasons than I have time to tell you today.
“If all my possessions were taken from me with one exception, I would choose to keep the power of communication, for by it I would soon regain all the rest.”
The song It’s Not Easy came on over the speakers. I love this song.
I thought…
“I haven’t lost anything that I can’t regain.
I don’t want to be this stressed out over a computer. Everyone I care about is OK. Everything I’ve done, made, created, can be created again. Maybe some of it will be better for it. I’m lucky enough to know that I have people around me that will help.”
I started swaying and smiling to the music, intentionally making eye contact with every pained face I could because we feel better when we smile.
People probably thought “Man, she’s kinda nutty.”
I didn’t care.
By the time the Apple Genius got to me, I was ready to hear how bad the damage was and take the steps necessary to get things put back together. I made him laugh, telling him he’d be cursing me later because I made sure that the coffee touched every opening on the device.
I headed home, smile still on my face.
This week certainly won’t go according to plan now, and that’s OK. I’m still smiling.
Why?
Because I know these three things for sure and I need you to know them too;
1.) We choose how we react to situations.
We have control. We can choose to let circumstances ruin our days or not. Choose wisely.
2.) There’s very little in life that can’t be figured out.
That doesn’t mean it will be easy, or that it won’t take time. When life tries to throw you under the bus, look up, smile and know that you’ll figure it out.
3.) People will always be more important than things.
I got to go home, grab my kiddo off the bus and hug my husband when he got home. There are many people out there who don’t get to say the same thing.
All is not lost.
Now accepting donations for cups with lids
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