How quickly we forget the moments of our glory, the joy of our being. How easy it is to become entrapped in the newsreel of life. How natural it seems to react with anger,impatience, hurt and frustration when situations seem beyond our control. This is precisely when we need to realize that we are in the midst of a drama whose script we have written. We are the actor, the director, the play-wright, the very play itself. The reasons for our doing this are highly personal and buried deep within us. Even we do not understand why we sometimes test ourselves so sorely.
Once, when I was going through an extremely difficult time, a friend said to me, “It’s only a test, John. It will pass.”
“Only a test?” I had shouted in anger. “Only a test? I’m tired of being tested! I don’t want any more tests!”
It’s necessary to understand that I was not,at the super-market, faced with problems of major import. There were no life-threatening decisions to be made. This was nothing more than an irritating situation arising out of a number of minor problems. Yet, by my demeanor, one would have guessed that my entire world stood tottering on the brink of annihilation. Realizing this, I decided to handle the situation in a more enlightened manner.
I breathed deeply as I stood there peering at the keys locked inside the car. Suddenly I heard the soft cry of a cat. I turned around, and there, next to the rear door of my car, was the prettiest kitten I had ever seen. It seemed so healthy and well-groomed that I was sure it wasn’t a stray. I called to the kitten and it cautiously walked over to me. I must return her to her owner, I reasoned as I picked her up. But there was no one in sight who seemed to have lost a kitten. A deep blanket of calmness began to envelop me as I quietly spoke to the lost kitten. I was now focusing on the kitten’s problem instead of my own, and the very shift in thinking made me feel better. However, it didn’t change the fact that I was still locked out of my car.