photo credit: mkismkmisk via flickr
The past few weeks I had an utterly ridiculous string of bad luck. As, I was partying it up at Pure in Vegas with my sis for the Fourth of July weekend, I received an email from my neighbor that read:
Patrice, sorry I don’t have your cell in my blackberry…as I parked tonight I noticed bricks in front of my car. When I got out and looked it was evident that brick from the garage fell onto the hood of your truck! There is a lot of dust, debris and brick on and around your truck. Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
I was pissed.
Of course.
But, determined to focus on the martini glass being half-full. I hardly ever see my big sis who lives in a separate state. The DJ was finally playing good music. I had my fave drink in hand.
Life goes on…
I return to Chicago, barely upright from the brick dilemma….
And someone breaks into my car.
Windows smashed…but guess what? This part is truly laughable.
The crooks didn’t take one thing.
My 2003 iPod mini didn’t make the cut…apparently.
The next morning, I call United States Postal Service to inquire about why I had not received mail during the past few weeks. I notice that someone (presumably, our mail lady) had written “vacant” inside of my mailbox…
Yep.
They cancelled my friggin mail. Because some ghost told them that I no longer lived there.
Right.
To make matters worse, the customer service rep could not pinpoint the location of my lost mail Whether it had been returned to the senders or if it was at a local office was all a mystery.
Yep, again.
Thanks goodness for the well-grounded folks in my life. A few words of wisdom really put things in perspective. Another stress reliever was writing in a Gratitude Journal.
A bit of background…
Journal writing has always helped me to relieve stress. I found however, that mostly my writings were rants about what was going wrong. I decided to refocus from what was wrong to what was right. Hence, the Gratitude Journal was born.
Writing out positive thoughts really helps me…
one.
Realize how trivial it is to waste time and energy on matters that are beyond my control .
two.
Have a renewed appreciation for all that is right in my world.
three.
Remember that bad situations are only temporary.
What are the ways that you handle stressful situations and refocus on life?