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Sometimes the old folktales are true. Right now, we are having what they call an Easter snap. It means that just before Easter no matter how warm and pleasant it has been, we always are going to have a cold weather spell.
I remember one old farmer who would always lament that it always came at the wrong time just as the fruit trees were putting on their blossoms and earliest fruit embryos.
Sometimes it did affect the fruit crops adversely but most of the time it just gave him something to complain about.
Have you noticed how pessimistic people can always find the worst in any situation?
I recently was in a group where we were all remarking on the lovely spring day when our resident pessimist spoke up and said, “But the wind will almost blow you away”.
I prefer the outlook of the man who, when served gumbo with too much hot sauce in it. He was heard remarking, “Well, it sho’ did help my cold”.
I like to find the best in a situation. Sometimes it’s hard. Recently, I had trouble with my satellite dish reception.
First, my remote to the main receiver went out. It kept saying on my television screen that I needed new batteries in the remote. It finally quit altogether. I put in new batteries twice. Nothing happened.
After the second try, I called in my neighborhood engineering specialist. He said that it looked like I needed a new remote.
The company I have service with is usually very good to either walk me through what I need to do or send a technician to help.
This time when I called their help line, it kept saying they could not accept my call at this time. I kept trying. When I finally got somebody they told me they were having technical difficulties.
No joke, I kept getting cut off for at least four calls. When I finally could talk to someone they told me that they couldn’t send me a remote.
I finally gave up when I left town for a week. When I got back, I started calling again. This time the person on the line told me to get a remote from another room and they would walk me through the steps in pairing that remote with my main receiver.
Needless to say, that didn’t work. Instead it messed up that remote so that in the room where it belonged it would only pick up one channel. That channel was Hallmark Drama.
And there is only so much “Little House on the Prairie” and “Murder She Wrote” that a person can take. I have a third TV upstairs. When I went to try and watch it, I got a signal that said my broadband connection was lost. I didn’t see how that could be because my internet router was sitting right next to the television and had its green light on which means it is working fine.
After many more attempts to talk to the help line, I finally got an appointment scheduled for someone to come out.
Then the day he was supposed to come out, I waited all day. Nobody showed up.
I was fit to be tied (another old folks saying) by this time.
I went through the whole rigmarole trying to talk to somebody for another day and finally got another appointment scheduled.
When the person showed up this time, I got things fixed and some straight answers.
He told me that the satellite network had gotten hacked in that worldwide screwup a couple of weeks before. It messed up all their data and services.
Who knew that a worldwide web hack on a big corporation would affect my personal life so profoundly? The technician fixed all my television reception problems and also so some satellite receiver problems I never knew I had.
I said all that to say this – sometimes when things do not get resolved instantly, it is because if we wait, something better will come along.
“All things come to those who wait,” is another bit of folk wisdom we can rely on, just as certain as the Easter Snap.
There is a bit of folk wisdom that may help you on your life journey.
Don’t ever pray for patience. If you do, you will just get more opportunities to practice patience in situations you might rather not have occur.
Don’t say “I am on earth to learn patience” in case your words might come true. Just know that if things are not lining up like you want them, too, just hold on, something better might be coming along if we just settle down and get on with our lives the best we can in the meantime.
Focus on something else. If the TV won’t work, read a book. I did that actually and when I got my TV back, I laughed as I sat in my chair still reading the book.
It wasn’t that I wanted to watch TV so much as I just wanted to have options. I like knowing I have choices.
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