On a regular night last week I unconsciously started making a mental list of all things that have been going wrong for me lately – the unpleasant encounters, the office meetings which did not go as expected, responses that I was awaiting from people regarding my queries etc.

At first I was overwhelmed with all the details my mind arranged for me to review. I felt that it’s so unfair that all of this is happening to me.
After having studied stoicism for a while now, I got reminded of a quote from Marcus Aurelius where he said:
“No it’s fortunate that this has happened and I’ve remained unharmed by it — not shattered by the present or frightened of the future.
It could have happened to anyone.
But not everyone could have remained unharmed by it.”

And that gave me strength.

So what if all of these unfortunate events happened with me, at least I’ll be able to remain unharmed by it as I’m a lot stronger than I used to be. I’m more resilient.

It also reminded me of power cuts in the 90s.
Remember the 90s when power cuts were frequent and not everyone had the luxury of having an inverter UPS or a diesel power generator ?

Those were really uncomfortable times.
Especially if the electricity went out in peak summers and you couldn’t even switch on a fan.
One had to keep candles ready as a backup for important work.

There were also times when you were in school and had an important exam the next day and the power cut would happen precisely on the night you had planned to pull an all nighter- thereby ruining your prospects of acing that exam you hadn’t studied for for the entire year.

But it wasn’t the end of the world.
As a school kid you knew that this power cut is temporary. Electricity would be back in a couple of hours and then this misery would end.

So as a collective we started enjoying this downtime.
Kids would run into the streets or on to their terrace. Neighbours would come out of their homes and chat.
People who preferred their own company would tune into their favourite radio station to distract themselves.
This temporary misery caused by external circumstances not in one’s control, turned into a temporary break where we all were aware that something not very conducive is taking place but we were all dealing with it in our own way knowing it is temporary.

That’s what I felt later that night after deep contemplation.
I did not feel like a serious man in his late 20s tossing and turning all night overwhelmed with things not in his control, but I felt like a carefree school kid in the 1990s facing a power cut knowing that power cuts are temporary, the night will last a couple of hours more; there’s a lot more to life, and it would be a new day tomorrow.

The day tomorrow may not be perfect and it may still be problematic, but it would definitely be different from this night. 🙂