The past couple of weeks have been unusually difficult for me.  Things kept breaking and not going as planned.  My kitchen sink became impossibly clogged leaving me with no sink or dishwasher, then we got slammed with an epic blizzard forcing me indoors for three days and when I finally ventured out to walk my very patient dog I lost my iphone in a 3 foot snow drift.  This was my only working phone (no, I don’t have a land line) and doesn’t even technically belong to me since its a work device.  I panicked but somehow survived the four hours I was out of communication thanks to my angel Melodie at Verizon Customer Service and some really sympathetic neighbors.

The following week I was ready to start fresh with lots to look forward to: celebrating Jared’s birthday at Hungry Mother (so yummy), a Valentine’s Day dinner date at Prezza (my favorite North End restaurant) and running the Old Fashioned Ten Miler over the weekend.  I haven’t raced in over two months and was looking forward to the course.  Also, I have totally run out of things to blog about and was excited to get back to ‘race reports’.  Slowly, it all began to fall apart again, I learned my plumber wouldn’t be available for several days to fix that broken sink (he was busy with his other job – snow removal), my car broke down and a snow Sunday morning meant my race, and only long run of the weekend was canceled.  After a few deep breaths and a yoga class, I found my calm and once again moved ahead.

I focused on how everything that was happening was at most annoying and inconvenient.  It was certainly unfortunate that I had to do all my dishes in the bathroom sink for a week and that my iPhone was lost in a 3 foot snow drift but I was able to get to a place where I realized that it wasn’t so bad.  Maybe its all the yoga I’ve been doing but after some panic and tears, I quickly found comfort in everything that was okay.  I was warm, the power had stayed on for most of the storm, I was not sick or injured and I had the company of a very loyal and well behaved dog that didn’t seem to complain too much that our walks were very short when the weather was bad.  My Mother always tells me that God never gives you anything you can’t handle and so far she’s been right so I simply handled it all.  I realized there was a solution to everything and was able to remain calm with a positive attitude.

Sometimes it snows and sometimes stuff breaks and sometimes things just don’t go your way.  We have little control over the trivial things that go wrong, but complete control of how we handle the situation and let it affect us.  I’m hopeful that I can once again channel the grace and positivity I had the past couple of weeks next time I’m challenged because one thing is for certain…there will definitely be a next time.