Good morning from Greenwich, Connecticut. I spent a longer time than usual in bed this morning. I was going to say contemplating my navel, but it was really about allowing myself to feel all the feels. I was thinking about what I want, where I might go. I was reflecting on what it means to be alone versus feeling lonely. I was thinking a lot about how good it feels to sleep in the same bed for seven nights and how grateful I am for the people who have welcomed me into their home. I was thinking about the state of the world and how disconcerting, upsetting, and chaotic and painful it is. Generally speaking, I got a lot of perspective but to be honest, I did allow myself to go down a couple of negative alleys.
I started thinking what the antidote is to feeling negative, in particular as it relates to feeling lonely and overwhelmed. One of them is gratitude, and before I got out of bed this morning I started thinking about all the things I’m grateful for. So, I decided to start my day by writing a few thank you notes.
Sprinkled in those morning thoughts were thoughts about what is it that my parents taught me about coping, resiliency and perspective. One of our family go to’s is something we learned from our father which is the question what’s the worst thing that can happen?
Anyway, fast forward. I was also thinking about something I saw Sir Michael Caine say. He was sharing a story about an experience that he had when he was young. I think he was in the theater. A husband and wife were improvising when things got totally out of control. They (the husband/wife duo) started hurling things and a chair got lodged in a doorway.
As the story went, Michael Caine turned to the gentleman and said Excuse me, I can’t get through the doorway, to which the actor replied use the difficulty. He looked at him perplexed and asked what do you mean? The response was well, if it’s a comedy, fall over it, and if it’s a drama pick it up and smash it.
Michael Caine was really struck, and he thought about it and he said he carried that saying and that idea of using the difficulty into his life. He said his children always quote him and they carried that into their lives as well. He said this is about asking yourself, when you’re faced with a difficulty, what can you get out of it? Even if you use it in very small part, you’ve won the game.
I really like that idea a lot. Use the difficulty, what can you get out of it? What can you make of. How can you use the difficulty to your advantage? It’s certainly something I’ll be pondering. I’ll leave you with that for today. Until next time, from my heart to yours.
