becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy as my mood is irreparably soured. And it turns out that things are less likely to go well when you go about convinced that they won’t.
I’m working on changing this. Today, I set out for my weekend writing session. When I arrived at the cafe, I was met with a sign saying that it was closed. Only the bookshop housing the cafe was open.
I was getting very hungry, but I told myself that I could make a comeback. I checked my list of writing cafes and headed towards the next closest.
It was open. But I was surprised at how small their food selection was. I went for a chocolate croissant, thinking that I couldn’t go wrong with a butter pastry filled with chocolate ganache. But I received another blow when they handed it to me cold.
“Can you heat it up?” I asked.
“No,” the barista deftly replied.
“This day is f-ed,” I announced internally, cursing myself for not asking about the heating situation before ordering.
Now I’m sitting down writing this and reminding myself that these things are insignificant in the scheme of things. Some would say “first world problems”. But I’m not fond of evaluating personal experiences relative to global extremes. Yes, I know that I could be starving, or terminally-ill, or have a gun pointed to my head. But that doesn’t lessen the disappointment that I feel at finding that at the center of my dry croissant is a hard nugget of chocolate. Or dampen the guilt that I feel for consuming so many calories worth of something that tastes like nothing.
What I mean is that I probably won’t be thinking of this slipup a week from now. And I certainly won’t remember that it even occurred 5 years from now. Probably because the consequences are insignificant - a few minutes of less than pleasurable eating.
And the entire day lies ahead of me. It is a blank canvas. How I fill it and the attitude that I adopt towards it are totally up to me.
This is a simple example, of course. It’s harder to reason-away gaffs that involve other people. The consequences are wider-reaching. And you can’t always expect the other person to wave it away. But good people can stomach your stumbles. Anyone who writes you-off because of a single misstep, whether in your control or not, are not worth keeping around.
In the case of today, I’m going to put the croissant behind me, write as planned, and plan something extra tasty for lunch.
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