My lost keys

Today, after a friend visited I decided to go out and get some lunch (I am not cooking in the house right now to help Michelle with her diet before her surgery). Returning home after lunch I found I had grabbed a set of keys to the truck without a house key on it (that is fixed now, I have a house key on all our key rings I think). Finding I could not get into the house, I tried to call my son (who has keys) but to no avail. No problem, I will just go over to the hospital at get Michelle's keys. On arrival there I find that she is in a class and shouldn't be distrubed. This was at 1:50 PM, and they say she will be back by 2. I return at 2 to be told she will be back at 2:30. I return to find that she will "be back any moment." I ask that they have her call me and go out to sit in my truck and read. She calls at 3:10 and I finally get her keys.

The point to this story?

Before today I would have been beside myself with anger. At myself for not taking the keys I should have had in the first place At my son for not answering his phone. At the hospital for not knowing when Michelle would be back for sure and finally with Michelle for being in a class instead of in the Unit where I expected her to be. Now this would not have been rational, but that is the way it would have been.

But today, I decided to take action instead of allowing anger to control me. I said mantras over and over finding myself becoming calm instead of angry. Instead of having a terrible afternoon, I had a good one. I got to talk to several old friends that I ran into in the hospital while waiting for Michelle to return. I got to listen to NPR in my truck and I got to read some of a good book. I had a wonderful afternoon instead of a terrible one. All because I did not let anger control me.