REACTION vs RESPONSE

It was another usual afternoon - sitting in a cafe to connect with the world behind a screen.  I had what I called my ‘happily ever after’ set up - a cup of tea, a sandwich, music, headphones and my phone. I was enjoying my time until the incident happened: tea spilled onto my laptop! A guy sat next to me accidentally pushed my tea cup with his power cord while I was helping him to plug his laptop’s AC adaptor to the wall outlet. "Oops!" was my reaction.  I ran to get tissue paper to soak the tea out right away. My laptop was still on, but after two minutes - BLACK OUT - It shut down! Oops!! I kept trying to dry it out - using the hand dryer in the bathroom, cleaning with more tissue papers for 10 minutes. I still could not bring it back to life. The guy deeply apologized a couple of times. I smiled and said, "It’s ok. Nothing we can do at this moment." I was seeing "what is" rather than "what was". I was aware of myself responding rather than reacting to the moment. And yet...it was just a laptop. There was no need to be upset about material things which can be replaced by another material thing like money. (Certainly, I still cherished my beloved machine.)

Finally, I gave up...really nothing I can do, technically. When I was packing my things to leave, the guy offered to split the repair cost. Really!!? I said it in my mind. I was delighted and surprised with the offer. I expressed my appreciation and got his contact information. I left the café. My backpack was heavy, but my heart was light. "Hey, what was just happening?" my little voice was curious of the moments.
 
I was, surprisingly, feeling joy and lightheartedness....and my ‘mind muscle’ was definitely stronger than I thought, since I was able to stay emotionally grounded, to respond ‘what needed to be done’ rather than react on an unproductive energy like anger, annoyance or frustration.The more we breathe mindfully, the more we smile peacefully. The more we are aware of our reaction to things, the more we expand our capacity to turn an unpleasant situation to a pleasant consequence.

Life is so good to me as always. I really like my new laptop!


Love and light,
Mandy

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