Although I’m not a sharer of quotes nor do I like to speak in quotes as I’ve written before, I do have some favorite ones to give me perspective on life.
One of my favorites is by Marcus Aurelius in his Meditations.
Is your cucumber bitter? Throw it away.
My modern interpretation of this is something like:
When your tea goes lukewarm, you can lament that it is cold and let it grow bitter as it turns colder. Or, you can reheat some water and warm it back up so that you can continue enjoying the warmth and flavor of the tea in your cup.
Metaphor not working for you?
I’m talking about taking control of your life – whether big or small: we can be a victim of circumstances or we can be the creator of experiences.
Recently, I felt myself growing rather bitter and frustrated at work. One of my colleagues challenges me in various ways. Although this person seems to be a “good person” – whatever that means -, I find it difficult to cope with the low vibrations that this person puts out on a daily basis. In addition, my work is affected by the decisions this person makes, usually by increasing an already full load while the offender skates through by holding on to the bumper of my steam engine. However, like any steam engine, a constant motion cannot be maintained without more fuel or rest. If too much steam builds up, then an explosion can occur. (Sorry more metaphors!)
In any case, after a few days of ranting to whomever would listen and a few chapters in listening to my new audiobook Stay Sexy and Don’t Get Murdered: The Definitive How-To Guide (more about this one later), I realized that I was playing a victim as well, which I was complaining about in my colleague.
Therefore, I broke down what was within my power to change and did it. In other words, I warmed up more water to reheat my tea!
Just as I tend to drink tea quickly, I don’t know how long the feeling of satisfaction in my proactivity will last. However, I am content that while I may not have thrown the entire cucumber out, I salvaged the parts of it that is still good by cutting away where it was growing bitter. π
~T π
