Stay positive and take time to smell the roses

Today I experienced a thought provoking event that reminded me no matter how difficult the situation, stay positive and take time to smell the roses, because others around you are often worse off.

People have a lot on their mind these days, stressed out with the global financial situation, rise in the cost of living,  the climate crisis, and much more.

However in many cases this stress causes problems to appear larger than what they actually are.

Like many other companies in Australia, business has been slow this year, and recent statistics show the retail industry is at its lowest point in the last 60 years. As I try to get my head around the situation and come up with solutions, issues can appear all encompassing, but the life occasionally has a way of stepping in and bringing things back into perspective.

I was walking down the street today and was approached by an older gentlemen, who explained he was trying to find his hotel room. I was a little perplexed as he produced a small map of the local resort he was staying in, but he had no information on where the resort was, the resort name or the address.

After a few minutes of investigating the map I thought I recognised the resort layout. I suspected all might not be well, so instead of just giving him directions, I walked with him to the resort several blocks down the street.

As we walked he told me how he used to have a prestigious job working in cartography (e.g maps) and he was visiting from out of town.

When we got to the property, I found the layout matched the map, but he did not recognise it, or know where his room was. I took him to reception, and was told he had been missing for several hours.

Apparently he had earlier gone to reception from his room to get a key to change rooms, and somehow ended up three blocks down the street.

With the gentleman having directions problems, I walked him up to his unit where he was reunited with his wife.

I am not sure if he suffered from a form of dementia or if there was some other problem, but while walking back up the street, I reflected on how fragile life is, and how my apparent problems were so small compared to others around me.

Today’s event was compounded by a blog post I read yesterday by Sir Richard Branson titled Campaign for organ donation opt-out. He related how a young girl who needed an organ transplant stopped him in the street recently, and asked if he could help campaign for improving the organ donation system.

There are a lot of very sick people round the world in need of transplants, but in many countries there is either no system in place, or it’s badly managed. In Australia we have an opt-in donor register, but the problem is that even if you are registered (which many people are not), organs will not be donated without a family approval. An opt-out system would be better, but all the other bureaucracy also needs to be removed.

My heart goes out to families battling with members with psychological or physical disabilities, and those with children who are sick or in need of transplants.

When I see people in these situations, it really acts as a perspective correction and makes all my issues look so small.

Sometimes you just have to stand back from things, take a breath, stay positive, and take time to smell the roses.

 Carl Chapman