Inconvenience

Inconvenience.  When spoken, the word itself produces reactions.  Of annoyance, of disgust, of anger, of sadness. We’ve all been inconvenienced in some way, at some point in our lives.  And it lives on sometimes, because we tend to remember suffering of any kind much longer than pleasure, which, to evoke the old saying, ‘is fleeting.’  But what is this thing exactly? What might inconvenience me might be just a daily thing to you, and vice-versa. We’ve all heard—unsympathetically sometimes—others stories of inconvenience, and thought to ourselves, ‘Really?  That was an inconvenience?’ And then thought, ‘…let me tell you about inconvenience…’ before launching into our own tale of woe that undid us at the time, knowing our own feelings of being put upon, put out, or otherwise annoyed would far outstrip that being told.  

It’s an interesting human characteristic that we are able to experience pleasure, and because this is usually a happy occurrence, we forget it all too quickly.  With suffering of any kind, because of the complete breakdown of expectations, we remember the nuisance of the situation far longer than is healthy. But the truth of the matter is that there people out there who have survived soul-shattering events in their lives—murder, rape, torture, financial ruin, persecution—who have not only survived the event, but made the decision to move through it emotionally and psychologically, and reclaim their lives as best they’re able, often succeeding so successfully that they become heroes for having faced the worst, met it eye-to-eye, and though they may not have been ‘triumphant’ in the encounter, they used the experience and the knowledge this brings, to make others aware of better ways to deal with adverse events in our lives.  Helen Keller, Anne Frank, Louis Zamperini, all went through unexpected struggles in their lives: Keller with being blind, deaf, and dumb, Anne Frank with hiding from the Nazi’s to save her family’s life, Zamperini with the glories of the Olympics, followed by unbelievable physical torture in the Pacific during the World War II. And while some of their struggles did not end with a ‘happy ending,’ all demonstrated the power of the human spirit to survive in the most difficult times, knowing, hoping, and praying that they could just make it one more day.

Yes, it’s inconvenient when it rains on your day off when you’d planned a great day at the beach with friends, or when your child struggles with school, and there seems to be nothing you can do to help them, or the fender-bender, or the chronically late co-worker, but looking inward, what is there in this situation at hand that makes you grateful?  And I know I sometimes have to look pretty deep, but the rain will pass, and maybe those beach plans, now ‘ruined’ make you see what amazing friends you have in your life, that the child who is struggling has such a strong desire to understand and learn, that the dent in the car is repairable and that no one was hurt, and though often late, your co-worker always has your back.  Because I’ve found that it really is impossible to remain angry and hurt at the same time you feel gratitude. So, ‘count your blessings’ and begin to feel the annoyance, anger, hurt, and yes, inconvenience begin to dissipate as gratitude for what is good begins to take its place. What has really happened when you do this? You’ve replaced Fear with Love, which conquers everything.