When it comes to life, it pays to have some business experience. Because, if there’s one thing being self-employed has taught me, it’s that projects never go exactly as planned. And that’s a huge carryover for the rest of life.
Last night it rained and rained. Thunder woke me several times, and I greeted the day –the first day of this brand new month — feeling more than a little discombobulated.
This morning I looked at the basement floor in the spot where it’s most likely to leak if there’s a real gully washers…and, amazing enough, the floor was dry. “Well, at least there’s that!” I thought.
I was puttering around the kitchen, contemplating the day, the new week, and the new month, when my phone pinged that I had a text. A friend asking me about the Ice Theatre camp that Wyatt and her daughter were attending and whether or not the rink had ever “lost the ice” like this.
Uh…what?
A few minutes later my phone rang. The coaches had made it down the alphabet to the Ps, and were letting us know that camp was cancelled.
The 5-7 inches of rain that fell overnight resulted in flash flooding. And that flooding came into the rink, melted the ice, and left a muddy mess in its wake.
No camp, no skating.
No ice — at least not for another 3-4 weeks as the rink staff and the parks and rec crew clean up and make new ice.
I posted this meme on Facebook a while back. At the time I thought it would be fun if it weren’t so true.
“Recalculating.”
Make plans, sit back and listen to the laughter of the universe.
Still, there’s a bright side here, and it came from my skate-loving son. He was sad his plans for the week had fallen apart, and really bummed the Squirrel Number he was in wasn’t going to be seen next weekend.
But been paying attention to the way we live our life — so he has remarkable perspective for a 12-year-old, and he’s able to do a positive re-frame of bad situations. When other kids might be in tears, he often says, “Oh, don’t worry Mom, it’s no big deal. Nobody’s dead.”
Today was no different. Over the course of the afternoon he told me, “well, it’s only a month or so…maybe less. And it’s better that this happened than if the rink burned to the ground. It could be lots worse.”
Some may people discount it as wearing rose colored glasses, acting the Pollyanna, or just being an annoying lemonade maker.
I totally get that.
But one thing’s for certain: if you live long enough bad things will happen, things no amount of pre-planning can prevent.
And when those days come, the person who can find a way to see something good — however small that something may be — goes to bes feeling better than the angry gloom and doomers.
So grab that glass of lemonade with both hands and take a big gulp.
See it as a reminder. Maybe the most important things we learn math, science or foreign languages. The truly important things are the ability to be flexible and adapt, to look for a spot of sunshine on a cloudy day, and embrace the inevitability of change. Those are important aspects of running a business, too.
So this week–Recalculating! (After all, it could be worse!)