The ghost of Patrick Swayze took my cell phone this morning and chucked it outside the 4^th story window adjacent to my bed. Or that’s the only logical explanation I can think of really, since my phone was on the table side of my bed when I got out of my bed this morning, and somehow ended up in pieces on the pavement surrounding my building. No, I don’t suffer from rage black outs. I wouldn’t say I really have much pent up anger, let alone rage. Freak occurrence. Not the ideal way to start my morning. The only reason I even thought to look for the phone outside my window was that I tore my place to shreds trying to find it, even though I knew I had last seen the phone on my bed. So I stuck my head out my window and there I saw my phone. And I honestly laughed – not only because it made no sense how it got there, but because I had just spent 20 minutes that morning listening to a guided meditation asking me to reflect on the material objects in my life. My iPhone was definitely in my top 5 “prized” material possessions. And Patrick Swayze’s ghost had just chucked it out my window. Ironic timing Patrick Swayze. Ironic timing. Was this about to turn into one of those days?!?!?!?!?

Today was my office day, and I was about to be late for a meeting, so I didn’t really have much time to do anything else other than go down and grab [the pieces] of my phone and ride my bike to work. Physical activity is therapeutic in that it helps work away frustrations and so I didn’t think much about what had just happened. However, as I sat down and booted up my work computer, I felt the underlying ripples of annoyance start to make their way to the surface. Fml. Really?!? Did that really just happen to my phone?!? Ugh! During my first meeting that morning, I found myself to be a little edgy and projecting criticism/aggression onto comments that my co-worker made. However, I knew that this was just me displacing my annoyance, since I was meeting with a co-worker that was also a good friend of mine and we had collaborated on this project (and many others) seamlessly in the past. No, this was me creating my reality. And now that I was aware that this was going on, it was now my choice on how this meeting (and the rest of my day) was going to proceed. Yes, my iPhone is gone. Yes, this sucks and what’s more I don’t even understand how it happened. But so it goes. Like the Taoist farmer pointed out, everything just is. And there is no use in crying over spilled milk, since it won’t get my phone back… all it will do is put a dark spin on my day. On that note, however, feelings also need to be expressed and validated or they fester inside of us and fill us with baggage that only serves to bogs us down. We have to let ourselves feel. No repression.

So I told my co-worker about the fate of my cell phone and how that sucked… and how after I saw my cell phone laying in pieces on the pavement I proceeded to put on a pair of pants and they felt extra snug. Talk about rubbing salt in a wound! And then we laughed. Before my next meeting, I made time to take control back over the situation and emailed my mom to tell her about what happened and to see if she could help me by talking to Rogers for me since I was phoneless and in meetings all day. By that point, the negativity surrounding the situation had all but dissipated. Things just are what they are and often times we can’t control and/or undo what’s done, but we can control how we react to it and how we proceed. I’ll [eventually] get another phone. And in the mean time, I’m kind of enjoying the break from manically checking my work email and from being reachable at anyone’s whim. And I’m grateful that I didn’t allow this situation to consume me and “ruin” my day.