Pick 49 - Control

Recently as I was listening to the News reports about the storms that had decimated the northeast portion of the US, I experienced one of those hidden value moments. As is par for the course with storms, people were reporting what they’d done to prepare for it, and what they would have done differently had they taken it more seriously. As they talked, the TV cameras panned over some of the devastation and it was at that moment that I had my epiphany: there are some things in this world that you can do absolutely nothing about.

I know that sounds like basic knowledge but it wasn’t the concept that stunned me; it was the unrealized RAMIFICATIONS of the concept. Suddenly, I perceived that I can’t control everything in my environment. There are forces and people out there large and  powerful enough to knock me aside like a windblown leaf . Worse yet there’s absolutely nothing that I can do about it.  I can't control them. I can't change them. I can't even avoid them.

As I thought more about it, other forces started coming to mind: the ebb and flow of the ocean, the waxing and waning of the moon, and even the behavior of the people around me. The one thing that I can control, though, is my attitude toward it and that’s a huge thing. As a matter of fact, it’s that characteristic that defines who I am as a person and how happy I am able to be. As Abe Lincoln once said, “Most folks are about as happy as they make their minds up to be”.

Perhaps that’s the hidden value of realizing that there are some things that I simply can’t do anything about; that it’s OK to let some things go and to be happy with the result even if it is not what I had planned. The storms of life come and go.  I have no control over most of them. My decision to accept the results with a happy or sad outlook is the hidden value in adversity. That is the only real control I have in any situation I face.

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