Beautiful Inconveniences
Some of my days seem like a series of really frustrating inconveniences, what some people call ‘first world problems’. Someone cuts me off on the way to work, grocery shopping when there’s a crowd, or I’m out of creamer for my coffee (omg nothing will upset my morning more than being out of creamer - my hubby knows to help me make sure there’s always some - it’s for the safety of the family lol). Sometimes these inconveniences can have a larger impact - the hot water heater goes out, air conditioner stops working, or even getting in a fender bender. These things can cost us a huge amount of money, time, effort, and energy.
Have you ever watched someone complain about an inconvenience and think to yourself “gosh, I wish I had that problem?” “Oh, your first class seat on your flight got overbooked and now you have to sit in coach?” “Oh, your super expensive car needed some work on it, I’m sure you make enough money already.” “Your giant house needed some work because the kitchen just wasn’t fancy enough?”
Have you ever thought about the fact that you are that person to someone else? Someone who can’t afford coffee creamer must surely look at me complaining about my Coffeemate Hazelnut No Sugar creamer and think to themselves, ‘wow, what privilege.” Someone who hasn’t been able to afford to fix their air conditioner in two years, listening to someone else complain about how they now can’t afford a vacation because they have to pay for an air conditioner.
Let’s take this a step further if you’re still hanging with me and haven’t gotten upset yet - I’m going to push you even just a little bit further. Have you ever thought about the inconveniences of life being a, bear with me on this, a blessing? I know, you probably just rolled your eyes. Hear me out. Maybe your flight got canceled, but it ends up being a plane that crashes. Maybe your vacation got postponed, but you would’ve been in a car accident on the way down. Maybe your hot water heater goes out, but if it had run another month, it would have crashed and flooded the house. The thing is, we don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t know what could’ve happened instead. The job you didn’t get, probably wasn’t for you and could’ve been a disaster. I don’t mean to downplay the difficulties of life - they suck. It’s ok to be mad and pissed that you’re dealing with life & these inconveniences. But, instead of assuming the worst just happened to you - try reframing it. What did this inconvenience just save you from? What better thing is going to happen to you now? What sucky thing didn’t happen because this less sucky thing did?
If you reframe your life’s inconveniences as blessings instead of annoyances every day, you’ll find yourself thankful for each thing that happens, even the inconveniences. They really could be beautiful inconveniences that saved you and you didn’t even know it.
Image caption below - a beautiful inconvenience of me getting lost in the streets of Dubrovnik years ago & finding some divine ice cream along the way.
