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.