How do you handle disappointment? We all get hit with things that are beyond our control or seem unfair. Life never plays fair, or so it seems. Of course, we conveniently forget all those times that the positive unexpected happened. Typically, those we chalk up to our good looks, how hard we worked or that we deserved it. Yet, when the negative comes, “well, that just sucks and is unfair.”
So, after planning and working for a year for a trip to Italy with 46 of my closest friends, we come to the end to get our flight back to the USA.
CANCELED
Oh no. . .long line. . .46 worried friends. . .man, I’ve got to get back to lead my classes. Shoot, I’m giving 3 exams on Monday and Tuesday. Finally to the front.
“I’m sorry sir” <bad French accent—did it HAVE to be a French lady??—Sigh.> “The earliest flight out is TUESDAY.”
Once the damage was done, the tears fell from 42 sets of eyes. OK, not everyone cried, but most of us felt like it. Thankfully, our great Tour Director Stefano went to work and secured us hotel arrangements on the tour company’s dime, including food. Wow! The man rocks.
The choice was now clear. We could pout, moan and cry for 3 full days. OR, we could accept the fact that sometimes things happen. One of my favorite passages from the Ancient Writings of Truth is when Jesus explains that sometimes stuff just happens. He said, “Rain falls on the just and the unjust.” Its not that somehow you were being bad or had sinned or had this coming, but that things just happen sometimes.
Some in the group holed up in the hotel for three days. Yep, even though we were in the Daytona Beach of Venice and Venice itself was just a $25 trip away (bus and boat), some seemed to be defeated. Or, resigned to their fate. Others?? Well, even though cash was tight, we stepped out into the unknown, unable to speak the language well, and we journeyed.
We went to Burano, a wonderful island near Venice. Others went to Murano, the place of Venetian glass. Some went back to Venice. That last day, my wife and I enjoyed a great lunch with a small bunch of the group. Later she and I just walked around the back parts of Venice and marveled at it all. Though we had not planned it and the situation got difficult dealing with my kids, my students and our lives, we had been given a gift of 3 days in Italy for free.
How you approach life and situations is on you. Choose to be positive. Choose to deal with the things you can’t change. Remember sometimes rain just happens to fall when you don’t have an umbrella and you have to deal. Keep smiling and don’t let life get you down.