Making Lemons Out of Lemonade, or whatever.

I am sitting in the Denver airport, flying home after a three day meeting and my flight, I have just been informed, has been cancelled. Not delayed. Not rescheduled. Cancelled.

Cancelled, they tell me, for weather related reasons, out of Denver. As I sit here brooding, two hours after my flight should have left, I am looking out at clear skies. In the distance, the Rocky Mountains frame the horizon. United Airlines put me on another carrier’s flight, about four hours after my original flight should have left, but with no guarantees that I’ll get home tonight. We’ll see if it goes out, they tell me. This flight to Madison is the only way home tonight, and if they cancel it, they won’t even comp my hotel room. It’s weather related, you know, they remind me. I stare out the window at blue skies and I smolder. Rar. And also, grrrr.

This is the first time I have been away from Jack since he was born (shout out to Grandma who flew out to my annual conference in November so Jack could travel with me on that trip). First of all, let me say, this sucks rotten eggs. Second of all, the Denver airport has no effing place to pump breast milk. As I sit here, all of the milk I have pumped over the last three days sits thawing out in my carry on suitcase, no doubt making a gross milky mess of my Smartwool socks and whatever else I crammed in there to try to up the insulation factor. And I get pissier by the minute. So naturally, I turn to people watching.

Why is that woman wearing such ridiculous high heels? Why is that man talking so loudly on his cell phone? Why is that lady speaking that way to her kid? They are eating THAT? What is that guy reading? Why is her bag so… pink?

Why is it that when we are unhappy we begin judging other people?

There is this really unfortunate tendency that I think we share as humans to start judging others and ourselves when we are unhappy. I have no doubt that it feeds back into itself- we judge ourselves and others, which makes us unhappy, then we judge others to make ourselves feel better. We can always find someone that we can compare ourselves favorably to, right? That stranger, that co-worker, that neighbor, that friend, that cashier who totally didn’t know what she was doing on the cash register at the drugstore. Good thing we are not as bad as THOSE folks. Right?

I suspect this explains the ratings for the Jersey Shore.

It is always a good time for mindfulness, but as I sit here brooding, anxious to get back home and to my family, it is a particularly good time to practice mindfulness and loving kindness. To stop the angry judging, to stop the irrational and unloving inner sniping at myself and others. To take a deep breath and perhaps, even, maybe, enjoy the next hour or two as an opportunity to read, write and meditate.

You know, make lemonade out of lemons… or perhaps butter out of thawed breastmilk…?