They say things happen for a reason.
Not sure if I’m entirely onboard with that at the moment.
For example, right now I’m sitting in my underpants, sweating like a tax cheat at lunch with an IRS agent, in an 87 degree house staring at the air conditioning repair man with an “I don’t care just fix it” look on my face as he explains, in minute detail, exactly why hot air is blowing from the ducts.
Sure, there’s a problem with the unit that caused the breakdown, but that doesn’t matter to me right now. As I put another cold towel on the dog’s back and add more ice cubes to her water bowl, I’m convinced that machines choose when to self-destruct by determining exactly when it would cause the most disruption to their human operator.
Machines and I have fought battles for a long time. But lately, I seem to think there is some collusion involved with anything that has a battery, power cord and circuit board.
My home alarm system seems to think that 3am is a perfect time to announce that the smoke detector in the kitchen has a low battery. As fate would hold, two days later, the same announcement would be made for the one in the living room. Then as the days went on, each room had its turn. But never once did the battery decide to die outside the nocturnal hours.
Somewhere during the course of the systems development, a programmer determined that waking someone from a dead sleep to announce a dead battery is the best thing to do rather than wait till a more civilized time.
Last week, fate struck again as a swipe of my hand resulted in a spill of a drink on my MacBook Pro. As I hurried to wipe up the adult beverage from the keyboard, it quickly appeared that my oops moment didn’t result in destruction. However, as the day went on, it became apparent that the end was near as key after key failed to do complete its appointed task. The next morning, total failure and a repair cost half the price of a new unit.
But, I have to remember, things happen for a reason.
I could say that there have been some good things to come out of the unexpected.
For example, who would have thought that a $149 pet weasel would end up being the catalyst for a $12 million business that started me on my journey of entrepreneurship? Certainly not I. My father once said, “If I knew you were going to end up selling hats for those stinky animals, we would have never sent you to college.”
My reply, “Trust me. If I knew that, I would have begged you harder to let me drop out!”
Unexpected moments happen to all of us, whether their outcome is good or bad, we don’t know until the fallout has occurred. But, things do happen for a reason.
Given the circumstances I’m in right now, as drops of sweat continue to pour from by forehead and I work hard to keep them from shorting out my new laptop, I’m realizing that things happen just to make us stronger.
Things happen to test us. To make us see just how far we can go to find a resolution with a positive outcome. To test our intestinal fortitude and make us realize that we can overcome obstacles as long as we persevere and give it our all.
Life gives us challenges every day. You may not realize it because we only tend to take notice of the ones that cause us the most difficulty. But they’re there. In everything we do.
Things happen for a reason.
Even if that reason is just to keep us on our toes.