Some of you might remember that last year I was in Donegal, with my husband and our German Shepherd, Annie. We had an amazing time. So good, in fact, that we booked the same house for the same week this year. I couldn’t wait to get back there. I spent the weeks running up to it day dreaming about all the lovely, long walks we would take, and reminiscing about the bright blue skies we had had. I found myself buying the same wine we had last year, and planning to hit up the same eateries. I was essentially trying to recreate what had been a truly fabulous few days.
I should know better. I should know by now that when you try to recreate an experience it never really works out. It’s like when you have a great meal in a restaurant, and when you go back the chef is out sick and you end up with cold beans on toast! I am so familiar with this recreation disappointment that I normally try to avoid encountering it. However, where Donegal was concerned we decided to take the risk, and I am glad we did.
We loaded up the car, popped the puppy (all 40kgs of her) into the back seat and off we went. With a stop for a bite of lunch, the drive took about 6 hours. We arrived in the early evening and got settled in right away. We sent out for pizza, the same one we’d had last year, naturally, and set about the serious business of relaxing. Annie was so much more chilled out this time. Last year she insisted on walking backwards around the place for the first day or two. There was no moon walking this time and she seemed right at home.
The next day, in much the same fashion as last year, we set out for a long walk along the beach. The humans hit 10,000 steps with ease, and the dog must have clocked up about 50,000! She even had a little tussle with another dog at one stage. When we got back to the house we were all worn out but happy. It’s amazing the restorative effect the sea air can have on the soul. That night, however, we noticed that Annie was limping a little. She had no doubt overdone it, so we resigned ourselves to taking it a little easier.
As it happened, the weather was pretty miserable for the rest of our stay, so were we not anywhere near as active as we had been last year. Initially I was a bit upset about it. This wasn’t the plan. I wanted to whine about how it wasn’t “the same,” but I didn’t. I decided to re-frame it. If I spent all my time thinking about what the trip wasn’t, I would be missing out on what it was. I won’t be getting another break for ages and I didn’t want to waste it, even if it wasn’t going exactly to plan. Just because it wasn’t the same, didn’t mean it couldn’t be great. In the end, it turned out to be just what we needed. A few quiet days away to rest and spend some quality time with our furry baby.
I am sure we all have a tendency to succumb to this way of thinking. Our plan hasn’t worked out exactly as we wanted it to, so it’s all ruined. We get so caught up with chasing the fantasy, that we risk throwing the baby out with the bath water. Sometimes, as Ryan Holiday says in his brilliant book, “The Obstacle is The Way.”
I will give you an example. My sister and I started recording a Podcast a few weeks back. My younger brother is acting as producer, editor and general “making it all happen guy.” None of us have a notion of what we are doing, but when has that ever stopped me! We were pretty happy with how the first few episodes went, but there was an issue with the sound, that we couldn’t quite get to the bottom of. It was really irritating, as it was making the Podcast seem less polished than we wanted. We sat down last week to record and my poor brother’s computer decided to have a complete melt down. No amount of ctrl+alt+delete could persuade it to cooperate.
Eventually we decided to fly up to my sister’s house and get her computer to use instead. Of course her machine didn’t have the software we had been using, and we when tried to install it, we got nowhere. At this stage we were all getting tired and more than a little frustrated. We managed to find different software, downloaded it and praise the seven, it actually worked! What’s more, we didn’t have the issues with the sound anymore.
The problem had been with the software all along, but of course we just assumed it was something we were doing wrong due to our lack of expertise. If we hadn’t had the computer malfunction, we might never have figured it out. What seemed like a complete disaster at the time, ended up being a big help. Proving that good can come from just about any situation if you allow yourself to be open to it. Be well xxx
