I’ve learnt to accept this in time.
I am a firm believer in the power we have over our destiny. Having said that, there are very many things not in our control as well and I just feel we are happier when we keep focus on what is.
Sometimes however, these worlds collide.
It was my 3rd day in London and I’d just seen a new place in ‘the docklands’. And as I was talking to my colleague, my phone was snatched. This involved a bit of a struggle and I found myself instinctively clutching and pulling but the phone eventually fell down and closer to the snatcher, who grabbed it and ran.
Cops and investigation followed. I could even see my phone on Mobileme for a while but the cops couldn’t step in to make an arrest without a ‘victim’s statement’ and I guess I came to accept it was a lost cause.
The cop at the scene said something which I remembered from time to time. He said ‘You’re going to be playing this incident over and over again in your ahead. And you will wonder what you could have done differently. Just remember that such things happen so fast that we have to learn to accept what happened, and move on.’
He was right. I did replay the incident with some replays involving me heroically chasing and sliding to trip the snatcher.. (we are after all heroes of our own life story). I even wondered why I chose to switch sims onto the phone just the day before that. I had to go through some pain as the iPhone4 requires a microsim..
Eventually, I did move on and just began to accept that some things are meant to be. It made it easier to swallow.
On the brighter side, I narrowly escaped a horrible deal on a flat and managed to land a great little place in a great neighborhood. And as bad as losing a phone was, I’m glad it was still a possession and not an attempt at my life.
These incidents often put such things into perspective.
The reason this crossed my mind was because after a call yesterday, a friend said something to the tune of ‘Great job! Seems like it’s just a positive time. Everything seems to be going right for you during this time. Just keep doing more.’
I smiled.
Not everything is perfect. But, that doesn’t stop us from doing great work because things are almost never perfect!
That comes with accepting that some things are meant to be.
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On that note, mugging/snatching aside, I love London as a city. More on that another day..
A Learning a Day 