Today was a difficult day. There was a series of things that went wrong. Although varying in degrees of importance, still ones that I could not ignore. Around noon, there were five things that I needed to do all at once. I knew this will not happen.
Waiting for a new computer to be configured at my desk I walked to the door of our office to look outside. We can see a tollway nearby with cars and trucks racing by. My mind wandered for a bit. Were my problems so big that I could not see the blue sky? I briefly opened the door and felt the warm breeze. The day was not too hot. Why it simply was perfect.
Back to the traffic on the tollway. No one knew of the avalanche I was in the middle of. Busy with their own lives I did notice that there were so many cars and trucks. I was one person. There was so much around me to absorb, While what I was in the middle of seemed so stressful, it occurred to me that no one would even notice what I was experiencing if I were walking by.
A quiet began to permeate my body. My breathing slowed just a bit with my muscles letting go of the tension I was feeling. The avalanche I faced did not involve death, sickness or separation. They were simply problems. Ones that will have to wait for me to attend to throughout the afternoon.
Not two together. One at a time. Some taking more of my attention to navigate. And that was ok. For what seemed so urgent could wait an hour or two until I could get to each one. An awareness that never would have occurred unless I took five minutes to look outside.
We either feel important or helpless when problems stack up in our lap. Neither accurately describes our situation. For the world outside of our door is much larger than most of the problems we face. Giving us hope that they are solvable with time and attention. And context in helping us realize that there is much more to life than what is simply in our head.
Problems are never meant to leave us helpless nor boost our ego. They are simply meant to be solved.