The art of bringing an open mind to the situation is often more difficult than we might like to admit; but have you ever noticed how things almost always work out better if you can manage to do it?
The other morning I somehow snoozed my alarm and dropped back off to sleep. When the dogs woke me shortly after (they’re very good at that) I had slightly less time than usual before work started; still plenty of time to be ready, but with dogs to walk, meditation and a Tai Chi session to fit in before breakfast it was going to be tight getting it all done.
By the time I was ready for breakfast, I had already decided it was going to be eggs on toast; without, I should add, having first checked the fridge. With expectations set, I opened the fridge door, and…disaster, no eggs in sight, and no time to go for some.
Whatever did I do next?
Anyone who knows me may be surprised (?) to hear that after a good bit of flapping about, staring into the void of the fridge to make sure I wasn’t just ‘not seeing’ the eggs, I stamped over to the cupboard to look for alternatives, resolutely ‘not seeing’ anything there either.
By this time, Jess had come downstairs: “What are you having for breakfast?”, she asked, “I’m not sure what I fancy…”.
“I wanted eggs, but there aren’t any, and I can’t see much else to have instead”, came my gruff reply.
While I continued on my fruitless quest, I was vaguely aware of the sounds of activity around me; and then, the bowl pictured above appeared under my nose: “Would this do?”.
As it happened, it did rather well; certainly not the ‘making do’ kind of breakfast I was so busy preparing for.
So What’s My Point Here?
All of those ingredients were in their proper places, but I had overlooked them because I was too fixated on one idea of what I wanted. I could quite easily have put a bowl like that together myself (maybe not quite as stylishly) if I had brought the right mindset to bear on the problem.
That’s a fairly decent lesson to learn before you’ve even started your day, but there was more. It served as an immediate reminder that the meditation and mindfulness practice I had only just finished should be more than just an exercise to do at a certain point in the schedule and then forget until next time; you’re supposed to try and bring them with you.
Openness , flexibility and non-reactivity are all choices we make every single instant throughout the day. Suitably humbled, I set about the rest of my schedule. I managed not to waste any more precious time beating myself up about my failure and sulking about it; at least I managed to get something right in the aftermath.
As A Footnote
I should probably make it clear for those who haven’t realised, that if not for Jess’s intervention things would have continued as they were. There is a staying:
When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.
How true.