What If?
When faced with adversity and the inconveniences of life, we can choose between a “What if?” or “Why me?” approach. “What if?” speaks to possibilities and moves us forward. “Why me?” turns us in on ourselves and can paralyze us. While there will be moments in our lives – serious illness, loss of a love one – “Why me?” is a natural and understandable reaction.
In the category of a simple inconveniences, I had a limb from my 50+ year old maple tree fall on the power line at 2:00 am Thursday morning. While outside checking out what happened and talking with my neighbor who heard the crash, my cable box started on fire from the surge of electricity. She ran for the hose, I ran for the fire extinguisher – luckily I got to the fire first (Lesson 1, 2, 3: always use a fire extinguisher on an electrical fire; make sure you actually have a fire extinguisher; stock extra flashlights that you can find and that actually work). I put the fire out before it spread beyond the cable box. The fire department came a few minutes later along with the power company. (Lesson 4: firefighters are good looking, unfortunately I was not at 2:30 am).
