It’s all how you look at things- That is how the saying goes, right? I never considered the impact of that statement prior to this weekend. I went to Reno with my mother for a few days just to get away. Getting to her place requires a drive down a 2 lane county road flanked by dairy farms and open fields. A routine drive and I'm about 20 minutes from mom’s house almost to Hwy 5 when I hear a loud POP. I blew a tire. I knew it from the sound and had no doubt when the rubber started to tear away from the rim. Not far, just around the corner a ways was a mini-mart so I kept driving until I got there and pull over into a dirt lot. I wander in to the mart which is populated by the farm workers: they don’t speak English and I don’t speak Spanish. Fair enough, I make the motion of speaking on a phone, they point and I call AAA. Fast forward 45 minutes the truck arrives, change the tire and I’m on my way.
Okay, first off I don’t want to hear about me not having a cell-phone. I had a pay phone and was able to make my call and … that is when it hit me: of all the places on that practically deserted road I blew out a few blocks from an open mini-mart with a working phone. It could’ve been on Hwy 5 at 75mph instead of 45. It could’ve been miles from a phone or a friendly face. All that could’ve happened in the situation didn’t and for that I said “thank you” to whoever may be out there. I realized that the experience was annoying, but I did not consider this to be a horrible ending to a wonderful week. In fact it now gives me the opportunity of telling a story about my dad and while I was in Reno he lovingly changed a back tire wearing thin on tread in order to avoid a blow out and in my determined head-strong way I had one anyway on a front tire with good tread.
So fate had this tire escapade destined to happen, there was no way to avoid it, might as well look at in the best light and in that moment I realized that many of our problems can weigh much less if we looked at them differently. Now, I’m not saying you can’t get upset or annoyed or even peeved, but it doesn’t have to be tragic. It just is. A different view can lighten the load even just little and sometimes that can make it easier to carry. This is my epiphany, oh yea and I also love pumpkin cheesecake.
Okay, first off I don’t want to hear about me not having a cell-phone. I had a pay phone and was able to make my call and … that is when it hit me: of all the places on that practically deserted road I blew out a few blocks from an open mini-mart with a working phone. It could’ve been on Hwy 5 at 75mph instead of 45. It could’ve been miles from a phone or a friendly face. All that could’ve happened in the situation didn’t and for that I said “thank you” to whoever may be out there. I realized that the experience was annoying, but I did not consider this to be a horrible ending to a wonderful week. In fact it now gives me the opportunity of telling a story about my dad and while I was in Reno he lovingly changed a back tire wearing thin on tread in order to avoid a blow out and in my determined head-strong way I had one anyway on a front tire with good tread.
So fate had this tire escapade destined to happen, there was no way to avoid it, might as well look at in the best light and in that moment I realized that many of our problems can weigh much less if we looked at them differently. Now, I’m not saying you can’t get upset or annoyed or even peeved, but it doesn’t have to be tragic. It just is. A different view can lighten the load even just little and sometimes that can make it easier to carry. This is my epiphany, oh yea and I also love pumpkin cheesecake.
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