There is a Taoist parable, Old Man Of The Frontier Loses Horse, that was played out in my day last weekend. After enjoying a few hours with a friend, I headed home feeling positive and relaxed from the connection. As I started out on the 40 minute drive my low tire pressure alert turned on. I watched the tire pressure slowly drop as my stress quickly rose. I realized I had no choice but to pull into the nearest Les Schwab to get my tires checked. Relief, as I parked the car, moved back to distress when realizing it’d be 90 minutes before they could look at my car. Back and forth I went all afternoon. Including back to ‘what bad luck I’m having today’, when I drove home and noticed the tire pressure dropping again. Apparently the fix, didn’t fix it. When I was safely home and my tire completely deflated, I noticed how emotionally exhausted I felt from the up and down. Back luck I got a piece of glass in my tire, good luck Les Schwab was open, bad luck the repair didn’t work.
I had 36 hours until they were open again and I decided to step off of the emotional roller coaster of assessing events as good or bad. And when I called them Monday morning, they came to get my tire and gave me a free replacement tire. So as I felt grateful for the integrity of this business, I also tried to not jump back onto the roller coaster. Instead, I accepted there are events that are just events. While also being grateful for the people involved in supporting my car and friends supporting me.
So the lesson!?! Maybe I can be like the man in the Taoist parable, knowing that things in life switch back and forth. However the emotional tone (at least in English translation) has always struck me as a bit ambivalent to life – even as it speaks to having hope. For me I’d like to aim to go with the flow of events, hoping that the flow moves in a positive direction overall, while also feeling joyful about the goodness that arrives and surrounds me in every moment.
Navigating Today 