Last week my car broke down. It had been a long time coming I'm certain because everyday there was some symptom that indicated that it was circling the drain. Initially when it happened I just locked myself in the bathroom and cried for what seemed like forever. After I had time to evaluate the situation and think about it I realized that I had overlooked something about the whole thing. While my car was sitting there lifeless at the time I thought about the fact that I have had my 2006 Chevy Cobalt since 2007. It now has 195,000 miles on it and the seats are worn out and it has a few dents and dings. After thinking about the whole ordeal it was easy to look back with retrospect and to see that the end result of a disabled car was not what the big picture was. What was important was that it COULD HAVE broken down as I was driving it and me & whoever else was in the car could have been hurt really bad or killed and that the car has really served it's purpose for a long time with nothing major happening that would have resulted in a mere fortune to fix.
Since all the revelation of positive thinking stirred about in my sometimes feeble mind I have thought a lot about how many times there has been a similar situation in my life involving a person. I thought about how people are so easy to do the same thing that I did with my car. It's so easy to get mad at someone or to get upset over something that is most of the time a simple mistake or something that was said or done wrong. We are so eager to just write that person out of our lives and not even think about the positive things that he or she may have done for us before this mistake happened.
I remember having a talk with my dad one time about someone that had upset me and really hurt my feelings. He listened to my side of the story and then with his [ever so practiced] compassion he responded with a question. He asked me "What do you feel is most important that you remember about this person? Is it all the good times you have had, all the laughter you have shared or is it the hurt that you feel right now?" I didn't even have to answer because it was obviously all over my face what my thoughts were without me saying them out loud. He went on to say "ya see sis if the shoe was on the other foot - you would want them to remember the good not the bad; so you gotta be able to do the same in return."
While a car is just materialistic- I still had to put into perspective that just because it was broke down it didn't mean that I didn't have something to be thankful for. People are so much more important than material things because they have emotions. They are hurt the same as we are and often times one bad thing can make us forget all the good that is in that person or all the good that they have done.
Luckily (or should I say blessed was I and not lucky) my car was fixable for now. So I'm back on the road again running the tires off of it and not even thinking about it breaking down - because obviously that isn't what is important. It's the same with individuals; be thankful for what they have done, don't dwell on them hurting you and when it's all fixed and the damage is repaired - go forward and look ahead...not behind - unless it's something worth looking back on.
