Ostrich Effect

Day 17

“For a seed to achieve its greatest expression, it must come completely undone. The shell cracks, its insides come out and everything changes. To someone who doesn’t understand growth, it would look like complete destruction.”

– Cynthia Occelli

I got upset with my mom last night. I know. Not positive.

I started today’s post a few hours ago and I’ve been struggling with getting my thoughts to flow on ‘paper’. I’m spinning my wheels and it’s getting late, so I’ve decided to just start fresh and write whatever flows.

My original post was about my mom being MIA last night for about 6 hours on her drive to sister #2’s house. The drive should’ve taken her about an hour, maybe a bit more if traffic was bad. She’s almost 80 years old, doesn’t have a cell phone and it was a pretty cold night. I was worried. I got upset with her when she finally did arrive.

I am trying to make sense of why that wasn’t a positive reaction. It was a natural reaction. If I had had enough faith to believe she was ok, I would have been able to keep a positive attitude, but I didn’t believe that. I thought something had happened, and I ended up filing a police report minutes before she arrived at my sister’s place, almost 6 hours after she left home. At the end of the day, I was thankful and relieved that she had just gotten lost, a few times and had no way of calling to let us know.

Is my reaction negative? Or is it positive that I saw some good in the negative situation?

Burying your head in the sand and not acknowledging the negative is just spin, it’s not truly a positive attitude. To be able to see the negative for what it is and find something good in it is real positivity.

I’m glad she didn’t run out of gas on the road while she was lost.

It’s a good thing the heat in her car is working well.

Thankfully, she didn’t panic or get flustered while she was driving.

At least the police were responsive and ready to look into the situation.

I am grateful that she drove home safe and sound this afternoon.