Mike Bennett

~ Travel. Food.

Mike Bennett

Tag Archives: Life

When life hands you lemons, you can’t always make lemonade

22 Monday Aug 2016

Posted by Mike in Thoughts, Travel

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Life, Thoughts, Travel

In my travels over the years, I’ve been lucky/blessed/fortunate, or whatever adjective you can summon (as well as incorporating intervention from a customary deity of choice), to not reach the position of having to cancel part of my trip, after it had been booked.  Sure, there have been many plans along the way which were modified heavily and even postponed for years, but never with only three weeks until departure; the honeymoon is over and I’m finally giving up my (multiple, arrrgggghh!) non-refundable flight cancellation cherry.

I always say things can be worse – of course they can. It’s just travel, it’s just flights and money and time and, well, going to places which inspire my love of the planet (even occasionally its people!).  I constantly remind myself that the unexpected news I received could have been delivered while I was already in-situ and then I would have been royally fucked.  It’s a temporary setback which will get resolved and should send me on my way for the second half of the journey, less than a year later than planned.

See, sometimes when life hands you lemons, a number of them are not ripe.  In this situation, it is sometimes better to place those to one side instead of compensating with extra sugar, to hide the acid, all in a forced attempt to make lemonade.  You will spend endless hours on tasting and mixing, constantly trying to sweeten something which is Just Not Ready.  As soon as I took my own advice and meditated on this as a life lesson, it all made sense.

Let’s look at the upside.  India and Asia aren’t going anywhere in the next year (unless you’re prescribing to end-of-world scenarios) and every bit of foundation, planning and research for going there, has already been done; all I will need to do is re-book the same hotels, the same flights and off I go.  Heck, I can even plan on longer in some of the places, now there’s no time restriction.  This is looking good.

Of course it doesn’t come for free and the loss of $1500 worth of flights is a hole in the pocket I did not need to feel burning through.  So what could I have done? Travel insurance first before flights? absolutely, refundable flights? Possibly but at a higher cost.  Saving more money to cover these kind of setbacks? Well, duh but then if we wait for the ‘perfect’ day, the commitment of going in the first place, often suffers diminishing returns, at the hand of other life issues; too much planning and contingency, can cause suffocation of the intent.

What’s important to remember here, is that a setback in life is hopefully temporary but even if it isn’t, there’s invaluable experience and learning to be acquired and absorbed. One day, you’ll reach into your life to find out that those lemons have ripened and you’re ready to finish making that lemonade.

 

 

 

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Treading water.

06 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by Mike in Thoughts

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Life, Mindset, Thoughts, Work

Things could be better, things could be worse. This pedestrian standard along with boredom is indeed a disease of the 20th century. You would think that after spending three months traveling and two months of demob at home, that there would be a sense of revitalization. But there isn’t; here I am, just treading water.

Part of the reasoning to head out for a longer trip was to preempt any mid-life crisis and the ever-suffocating lack of desire and fulfilment. Nothing changed and my choices have continued to dissuade any headway. I’m open to the possibility that I’ve reached my peak and the punctuation in pushing my extremes is no longer necessary, or required. I need really convincing of this. I’m not going quietly.

At the end of last month, I took a partial step backward by accepting a position that offers substantial pay and rewards my patience and push-button prowess, with the ability to pay off the remaining travel expenses within 7 weeks. After this time, I’ve got to find the determination, drive and will to get out of the QA holding cells I keep locking myself in and develop new tactics toward the most fulfilling way I can continue to pay the bills. I had hoped to make this transition after getting back from Europe but I’m still taunted with its evasion.

The majority of my negativity, is the by-product of unmedicated depression (I suffer from self-recognized periodic depression and self-medicate by riding the storm). I won’t even start on my relationships but as part of my make-up as a human, I’m hard-wired to continue thinking that I’ll end up living life alone and I’m OK with that. The people that know me the best accept my complexities, even if they don’t understand them and it would be unforgivable of me to not acknowledge the importance they play in my life.

For the next month or two, I’ll tread water less and grasp the will to float more. I should be laying back and listening for ships on the horizon, that indicate the best passage out of this sea. Sometimes, we can be deafened by the sound of our voices asking too many questions.

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The life in-between.

22 Friday Jul 2011

Posted by Mike in Thoughts

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Consciousness, Life, Living, Thoughts

What elucidates us as an individual is not a continuous stream of events but a series of pools, deep with defining moments. When viewing these pools as a collective, meaningful life is invariably shorter than initially perceived. Instead of continually overreaching toward the next pool, we should slow down and instead learn to make more constructive use of our time floating between.

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