Could the World Stop and Let Me Off?

Have you ever had one of those days... or several in a row... where everything seemed to come crashing down around you?

Well, that pretty much describes last week for me. Here's a brief synopsis for you. Hopefully, you'll feel blessed by comparison ;-)

1. Wednesday: major plumbing disaster in downstairs bathroom, coming from leak in shower pipe above it. Real cause was hidden faulty workmanship under previous owner.

2. Thursday: Plumber comes and diagnoses problem. Whole shower fixture has to be replaced for about $500.

3. Friday: Plumber comes and does the job

4. Friday night: old family friend, age 90 +, suddenly shows up in town, totally unannounced, and wants to see the whole family. We arrange to have supper on Sunday.

5. Saturday: family member who was dogsitting for friends out of town gets sudden symptoms of vertigo and is taken to hospital. I spend Saturday driving all over the place because of this.

6. Sunday: New plumbing disaster, unrelated to the first one - the laundry tub overflows during a wash cycle.

7. Sunday night: Old family friend is totally unreachable from Saturday night on. We all arrive at the hotel to have supper with him on Sunday evening, only to discover he's already left town in the early afternoon. I'm thoroughly confused and still trying to figure this one out.

So when stuff like this happens - and it will from time to time - what do you do? Here are some
suggestions that work really well:

• Build your ark before the flood (Noah was a smart guy...). In other words, make sure you personally are in great shape physically, emotionally and spiritually. Nothing at all can substitute for personal resilience when the sky falls in and lots of extra demands are suddenly placed on your stamina.
  
• Focus on your inner world: cultivate inner peace and harmony even though the walls are falling down around you. This sounds counter-intuitive but, then again, most winning strategies do. This keeps you from focussing too much on what you don't want, which improves your spirits a whole lot.
  
• Relax and go with the flow of events. That doesn't mean you don't try to control what you can; only that you recognize what you can't control and learn to surrender to it with faith. After all, stressing about what you can't control is simply wasted energy.
  
• Remember Winston Churchill's famous maxim: "If you're going through hell.... keep going!"

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to go home and meet with the next plumber ;-)

~ Dr. Symeon Rodger