“Life is 10% what happens to you and 90% how you react to it.” – Charles R. Swindoll
The other day I was making a cup of green tea and the pod got stuck in the machine. Immediately my brain assessed that I had something shaped like a cylinder trying to come out of a space shaped like a cone.
It started me thinking about metaphorical toolkits and how we go to them. It seems, at least in my family, that when faced with a problem or a project, we each have a sweet spot tool that lines up with our vocation or avocation.
And for me, an engineer, my tendency to face anything is problem-solving.
My mom, who by education and mindset is a great linguist, edits her way out of problems.
My dad was a Presbyterian pastor. And his primary tool for everything good and bad was to find a scriptural reference.
For the litigator in my family, history has shown her go-to is taking legal action.
My brother, an entrepreneur, always looks to innovate himself out of a tight spot.
My sister-in-law, who has many talents and careers, organizes when pressed.
Have you heard the joke about the person holding a hammer? When you are holding a hammer, everything looks like a nail.
But as I watch my young kids who have not yet trained to be anything, I see their instinct is to hug, cry, sing or dance when faced with anything big.
After I solved my problem and was sipping my tea, I wondered if all of us who have “become something” are missing a key first step in the process – to allow our bodies to feel it all the way through. To take in a moment of pause to acknowledge where we are and use it to breathe underneath our programming. At the very least, we might at least acknowledge that there we are predisposed to handle things in just one way of many, and then tackle it wisely from there.
(photo from Pexels)
Surprised By Joy 