Serendipity

Today has been a rollercoast ride for me.  As always I am awake in a good mood but then I recall the disastrous pickup at the mailbox yesterday that had a dunning note in it.  I had to play detective to discover what it was about because despite it declaring “after numerous attempts . . . “ there had been no attempts at all to contact me about whatever it was that I apparently owed $1300.00 for.  But viewing the envelope it appeared it was a rental company.  Hmmm.  Being Sunday I couldn’t make any phone calls to get to the bottom of this so I had an upset stomach while I attempted to figure out what could possibly have gone wrong.  Monday arrived, I was able to call the insurance company who declared immediately “don’t think any more about it, this is a mistake” and I thought “thank goodness I didn’t have to get mad”.  Naturally this was cause for celebration so what would any rational girl do?  That’s right, I headed down to buy a LottoMax for the winning $50MM ticket of course!  But life is never that easy.  On my return I discovered an email from my local municipal office saying that there was a glitch in my application.  Oh goodie, more trouble shooting.

          In between my personal life I actually had to settle down and do some work.  After all that’s why they pay me.  At least on the work front everything went smoothly, including running 2 meetings that ended ahead of schedule.  Don’t you just love organizational effectiveness?

          Even though I have “life experience” I still find it difficult to brace myself for the dips in the rollercoaster ride.  I’ve come to realize that when I have several months without a single hitch, then the hitch is just around the corner and usually nothing that I have anticipated.  As I wrote a while back, living through these trials is what makes us stronger, and with each bump I hope it builds more sangfroid to handle the incidents with grace rather than anger.  In men they call it mellowing, I don’t know if they have a word for it for women but I hope it’s something like aging gracefully.

          When one is young I think the first reaction to an unexpected unpleasantness is surprise and frustration; later one becomes irritated; finally one starts to experience anger.  Now I find myself saying “oh dear, I hope I don’t have to get angry” because I have obviously done it often enough in the past.  Always, I have approached my situation with calmness because I know you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar but there have been times when I have had to deal with someone who was simply impossible and then I’ve had to let loose.  Afterwards I always feel terrible, even though I usually end up the victor in these altercations.  The fact is, I really dislike them.  I know some people thrive on drama and confrontation but I am not one of them.  I would walk a mile in the opposite direction to avoid a confrontation but then something will trigger the old “oh no you don’t” attitude and then the poor guy is in for it.

          I know I am not alone in this dread of confrontation but don’t you sometimes wonder who stores and businesses put in charge of customer service?  

Which brings up another topic . . . are you doing what you really love (well, LIKE) doing?