Yesterday, somewhere in between parking my car, getting the train to the city and arriving at a business meeting – I lost the jacket to my favorite suit.  I’d slung it through the straps of my handbac and you guessed it, it slipped out somewhere along the way.  I have no idea exactly where!

Almost immediately I came to the conclusion it was gone.  I should have been more careful.  I shouldn’t have been cutting it so fine between meetings and I wouldn’t have been so frazzled.  I assumed the worst and got on with the next important thing for the day.  After all, there’s not much I could do about it now.  Even if someone had found it, why would they hand in a beautiful brand name jacket?

So I focused on my meetings and by the time the end of the day came, I made my way back to the car feeling somewhat sorry for myself.  By now it was evening and it was cold out!

Jumping into the car, I put the keys in the ignition and went to drive off when I realised (thankfully!) that the windscreen was blocked.  Because there, on the outside, was my jacket.  Someone must have seen me drop it – somewhere – and put it where I would see it when I returned.  How lucky was I?

It occurred to me that – while we could spend our time and energy focusing on the best – our natural tendency is to assume the worst.  We assume no one will help us.  We expect no one to care.

This time I’m happy to say how wrong I was.