My reaction to adversity wasn’t something I’m proud of

          How do you react when you face adversity?

          I’ve always thought I’d take the high road. That I would do what was right and try to turn a bad situation into a positive one. That’s what I thought I would do.

          It’s been a frustrating few days and, even though the solution is within sight, I’m having a hard time trying to see the bright side of things.

          My work computer died — to be more accurate, it regressed and pretended like it was brand new, with none of the programs I use regularly available, other programs acting like it was the first time I ever opened them, and my “Downloads” and “Documents” folders empty.

          EMPTY!?

          I had been working the night before and about 10 p.m I decided it was time to go to sleep. The next morning, when I sat down at 7, I discovered my predicament. I tried everything. I rebooted; I made sure the computer date was correct; I tried to “rollback” to a previous point, but got a message that was not possible.

          All my documents gone — all my knitting and crochet patterns, my fledgling novel, all my photos, and all my blog post ideas — just gone.
I have heard many people say that the key to one’s attitude is 10% what happens to the person and 90% how that person reacts to any given situation. I am ashamed to say that I did not react calmly. There was much muttering, cursing, and slamming of objects. I was anything but calm.

          About an hour later, after drying my tears and being able to breathe again, I remembered I had a program installed on the laptop that automatically backs up files to the cloud.

          Was my work computer up-to-date with its backup?

          Hallelujah, yes!

          So all I had to do then was download what I needed from the cloud onto the family’s computer so I could keep working.

          Have you ever tried to download a couple of gigs of data using a satellite Internet connection? It’s safe to say there was more muttering and cursing throughout the day Friday.

          Part of the day Friday was spent ignoring the situation completely and working on a craft for a couple of hours. That helped me calm down, but it didn’t get anything that I needed to do done. So I started downloading … and downloading … and downloading … and downloading until the wee hours of Saturday morning. I ended up choosing stuff I knew I would need and left the stuff I didn’t have to have and could download another time when I was able to get some free Wi-Fi somewhere else.

          So I have my novel notes back; I have my blog ideas back; I have some of my photos back, and I know I can get the rest another time. And I’ve had a chance to look back over the previous couple of days and see how I failed in maintaining my “good” attitude.

          But, I’m trying to give myself a little grace. I may not have succeeded in looking for the positive this time, but I’m sure I’ll have plenty of other chances to try my hand at it again.

          My family got Chinese food for supper last night. And, we each got a Fortune Cookie; I had to laugh after I read mine.

“Circumstances do not make the man, they merely reveal himself to himself.”

          Kind of appropriate, wouldn’t you say?

          And, if that’s not enough universal synchronicity (that’s for all you Artist’s Way devotees out there) to get me to stop feeling sorry for myself, I just finished reading comedian Trevor Noah’s memoir, Born a Crime, about his experiences growing up in South Africa — pre-apartheid (when he literally was born a crime to a black mother and white father) and post-apartheid. Nothing like a little slap in the face for me to wake up and realize I live a privileged life and am lucky to have what I do. It is a luxury that I’m able to keep writing because we have a second laptop. In fact, counting my husband’s work computer, my son’s laptop and his desktop, we’ve got FOUR computers in the house. They, along with my Kindle and smart phone, are more than what I need to meet a blog post deadline and write a few hundred words that might mean something to someone.

          It takes one slow gaze around my house to see that I am indeed very lucky. Right now, it’s raining, but I’m not getting wet because I have a solid roof over my head. Before the rain started, it was hot and muggy, but I’m not sweating because the air conditioner is happily rumbling in the background. I’ve got laundry baskets full of clothes to fold, and a dishwasher full of clean dishes to put away. I have a refrigerator and TWO freezers full of food. I have shelves full of books, DVDs, and CDs. I am blessed beyond measure.

          So, I had a couple days of stress and worry. No big deal. It’s happened before (which is why I now backup everything to the cloud) and I’m sure it will happen again.

          I just hope next time, I react to it in a more positive, calm way.

          By the way, the book I picked up off my shelf to read next? Marie Forleo’s Everything is Figureoutable. There are two quotes in the first chapter alone that spoke to me:

“No matter what you’re facing, you have what it takes to figure anything out and become the person you’re meant to be.”

          and

“Yet there can be no significant change in the world unless we first have the courage to change ourselves. In order to change ourselves, we must first believe we can.”

          Can I change the way I react to adversity? Certainly! Can you? Absolutely!

          I guess the next question is: If we have the courage to change ourselves, do we have the courage to change the world?

Until next week,

Susie from Stix-n-Stonez