The Valuable Life Lesson Raisin Bagels Taught Me

I sprinted through La Guardia and just made the 6 a.m. Boston shuttle. I was panting, uncaffeinated and hungry. So when the flight attendant hurled a brown bag at me, I lunged for it. I was not going to turn down breakfast, even if it was a bagel masquerading as a hockey puck . 

When I opened the bag instead of feeling gratitude (I made the flight! I am eating! I have coffee!) I felt despair. Inside was a f*king raisin bagel. I hate raisin bagels. 

I ate my bagel with great effort, grimly tearing off and inspecting each piece before slapping on cream cheese. 

By the end, I had picked out a whopping 3.5 raisins. At least I had a good laugh at myself. All that misery and hard work for only 3.5 raisins! 

Two days ago I wrote about intervening early where there's a growing gap between expectations and reality. Today's point is different: Notice when you project negativity all over your reality, so much so that what you experience isn't real at all. 

I should have rolled with gratitude and relished the evil raisin bagel. Instead I chose to be surgical about raisin removal while grumbling about Delta's catering choices and being miserable. The joke was on me!

Photo credit: "Cinnamon Raisin Bagels" by Back to the Cutting Board is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0