Late Appointment, Wonderful Opportunity

Most people get frustrated by others being late to their appointments, or even by being ‘stood up,’ as if being held up is something that’s a gross sin. Recently I found a beautiful silver lining to that sort of cloud, however. The setting: coffee on the harbour. That alone—even as the relatively lone figure that I cut—is a fine image in the mind; and that’s what I had before me.

As my busy, chaotic mind—swamped with exigent thought—settled rapidly into another tidier realm, a place without a place really, I gazed out over a wonderful, mind-soothing vista. It had been the first chance I’d had all day to slow down.

It was a chance to take a rest, a breather; a wonderful opportunity to take in some of the sun’s soothing, time-limiting rays, the rippling chop of the waves, the generously crisp sea breeze, the odd seagull.

A chance to dream at one moment and observe at another, my mind was in a blissful in-between place. Watching the various activities with people doing what people do, but from a safe, devolved viewpoint proved splendiferous.

I had time to yawn. With good sleep under my belt I wondered why I was yawning, but simply having the opportunity to yawn made the moment special.

Perhaps most of all this interruption had proved a pleasant blessing in disguise. It forced me to surrender my will to the time gods and made me shift my mental track.

The opportunity to re-enter the present instead of being overly concerned with the immediate past or future was a calming, soul-lifting exercise.

In another area of the world they celebrate Thanksgiving about now; I had so very many reasons to be thankful for this somewhat serendipitous adjournment. It lasted a whole ten minutes—but that’s all I needed in being reminded of the wonder in the simplest things.

And I’m led to ask; why do people not make these so-called negatives into their obvious positives? I mean, being stood up is perhaps personally embarrassing and disrespectful on the part of the other person, but it’s free time—and hey, we’re not the ones at fault. That’s enough to bring a smile to anyone’s face.

A key element of life capacity: we must not allow our expectations to reign over every situation. If they do, they’ll cruel us eventually. There’s nothing more inevitable.

In all life, stay open.

© S. J. Wickham, 2009.