(Title image: Photo by Nathan Dumlao on Unsplash)
With the Thanksgiving holiday coming up in the United States this week, I wanted to offer you a funny little story to think about when you feel there’s little to be grateful for.
Although I work from home a lot these days, I had gone in to the office a few days ago to get some things done onsite. It was a hectic day and I ended up leaving later than I expect, and as I walked to the busstop, I was carrying more items than usual, including an umbrella for the sun, a large zippered bag for my water bottle and food I hadn’t had time to eat and held my cell phone connected to a charger in one hand. I was loaded up!
Luckily my purse is backpack-style so I didn’t need to carry it in my hands. And my office keys were on my ID badge, which hung around my neck.
(Photo by Alexandra Tran on Unsplash)
On the way to the bus, I was preoccupied with things that I still needed to do and concerns about issues at home.
The bus arrived, I got on and put my belongings on the floor at my feet, burying myself in a game on my phone.
NOTHING seemed out of the ordinary, save for someone who sat down beside me and seemed to press against me a bit. But, hey, it’s the bus and there were a lot of people on so it isn’t a completely comfortable ride. That’s okay.
Besides, the guy moved to another seat as people got off on their stops.
By the time we got to my stop, I prepared to get off by collecting my items. And my heart missed a beat: my purse was not there.
I did a double-take. I looked all around my seat. Nope, no purse.
My head started to swim because it seemed obvious that someone had taken it. I rushed over to the driver and told him that I thought my purse had been stolen. He listen to my story, called the dispatch and marked the security video, explaining that I should fill out a police report and let them know the time and bus number…
(Photo by Nick Noel on Unsplash)
I dutifully wrote down his instructions but I was already thinking of the hours of work that getting my cards cancelled, obtaining a new drivers license, getting new car, apartment and mailbox keys, and everything else would require.
“And now THIS on top of everything else!” I thought to myself as I got off the bus and walked home, feeling dejected and spent.
Before calling the police department I decided to call my co-worker to check my office in case I’d somehow left my purse there.
But I knew that was hopeless. There is no way that I would have walked out of the office without putting on my backpack purse, no way that I would have not felt it on my back as I stood waiting for the bus and absolutely no way that I would not have noticed that it wasn’t there when I put all my belongings by my feet on the bus.
I was wrong.
My co-worker told me that it was on the floor under my desk.
Behold the power of mindlessness! I have no idea how I could have missed all those cues that alert me to presence or absence of my purse, especially when it’s the most important item that I carry. But I did.
(Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash)
However, that’s not the point of this post. The point of this post is, suddenly I did not need to call the police department, cancel my credit and debit cards, stand in line to get a new driver’s license, sit and recall everything that I had in my purse and wallet and anything else that I would have spent hours doing.
And I felt a tidal wave of gratitude wash over me, one that would have not experienced if I hadn’t spent the last 20 minutes convinced that someone had stolen one of my most important belongings.
That gratitude came out of nowhere. And it made me think.
If I could muster such a powerful feeling of thankfulness when I realized that something bad that I was sure happened actually hadn’t happened, maybe I could find a way to generate that same feeling without needing to experience the sense of doom beforehand?
In other words, I can be thankful for all the bad things that don’t happen even if there aren’t great things going on at the time.
So this Thanksgiving, my wish for you is to be able to experience sincere gratitude without having to lose your wallet and then find it.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Frantic Shanti 