Quite some time ago, I decided to make a conscious decision to try to make the best of my life. And really, why not? We're only here once, so we might as well live as well as we can. By making this decision, I understood that I would need to take an honest self inventory of whom I was and who and where I wanted to be. After all, my life had become rather cumbersome. I was dwelling on the past too much. I had a friend who was the most negative person on earth who had the ability to drag me down to his level in an instant. I realized that I had this level of anxiety that I had never noticed before. It was almost paralyzing! I was letting things happen rather than making this happen!
It was during this 'self inventory' that I made the most important discovery of my life. "I was holding myself back...." It wasn't my friend with the ability to drag me down. It wasn't the negativity that seemed to surround me. I was standing in my own way!
At this very moment, I had truly my first Zen experience. I finally knew that I could only control "me". I was in charge of everything "me" and nobody else had that power. Me and me only could control how I acted or reacted to every circumstance around me. As well, I realized that I could happily take accountability for my actions as well as my reactions. It dawned on me I could choose to keep hanging around my negative friend and I could let him control how I felt, or I could distance myself from him and let the positive energy flow. I noticed that I could choose to find the positive in everything rather than looking for the negative! Zen!
Right then I decided to drop all of the negative things in my life and accept everything and everybody as they are and all of the pressure and anxiety left my body in an instant! Cathartic....
I've been doing my best to stay on track, and I told you all of the above to get to this:
So, a pizza delivery guy comes through the gate at work and stops as required. I politely ask the gentleman if he knew where he was headed and he showed me that he did indeed have the physical address and a GPS. He said "Yeah" like I was wasting his time and added "my GPS will take me right to their front door" as he was pulling away. He stopped at the stop sign and promptly took a turn in the wrong direction.
I couldn't help but smile. Here I am wasting this busy mans valuable time all the while he had the latest in gadgetry that would ensure his safe and timely arrival at the desired location. He made a turn into a short cul-de-sac so I knew he would be turning around. I decided that I would meet him in the intersection and get him headed in the right direction. After all, this guy is a busy man and he can't be fooling around, and I am concerned with doing the right thing.
As he approached, he looked at me while talking on his phone and looking at the GPS in his other hand. His pride must have been overwhelming him at the moment because instead of stopping and asking me for directions, he just drove by... again.... in the wrong direction. What's special about this new heading the busy pizza delivery guy was taking is, it too is a cul-de-sac but its end is much further down the road.
Now, I was in a pickle. Do I do the right thing and track him down and have him follow me in the right direction or do I wait for him to do the "drive of shame" right back to me and then ask for directions? I zipped my coat up because it was chilly. No way am I leaving the intersection now. About 5 minutes goes by and I figured he either committed suicide because of the embarrassment or he was stuck in a snow drift.
Here comes old Magellan, limping along with his ass dragging between his knees. I positioned myself so there was no way he could get around me. I did this for my benefit as much as his. Not only could I assist this guy in his journey as all of his gadgetry had failed him miserably, but I could get a real good look at this guys face. (It's important to know stupid when you see it.)
Here's the beautiful part. This guy rolls the window down and says, (like he's never, ever seen me before) "Good afternoon sir. I am looking for this residence." I'm smiling only to keep from laughing. I said, "let me see" as he handed me the label off of the pizza box. I scratched my chin and pretended to be real puzzled. "If you go left, you'll leave the property so that isn't helpful. You've been to both the north and south of the subdivision, so I guess you'd better head to the west."
5 minutes later he had to drive by me at the gate. I wanted to be out there waiting. He had this look on his face that looked somewhere between the question "Who farted?" and the look you'd have if you got hit in the face with a tin foil cake plate.
When it was all said and done, I realized that I could view this chance encounter as 15 minutes that I'd never get back or I could take it as the true gem it was. Being rather Zem like, I chose the gem. I bet he isn't writing this shit on his blog.
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