Happy Friday: It's Just A Date, It's Only Stuff

Unhappily, yesterday I arrived home to discover my home had been broken into. Back door smashed in, pot plants in disarray etc. You know the drill. Gone was my laptop (among a few other things). Gone are all my photos - overseas trips, weddings, precious memories, fun times with friends - every job application I ever wrote, my application to New York which I worked so hard on (it's in my email - but only as PDF), my iTunes library which I loved in spite of constant ridicule (I stand by my love of the Spice Girls, AC/DC, Aerosmith, Guns n Roses and Britney Spears), my uni work and all my painstaking research, every piece of writing I did - published or unpublished - and worse, every WORK IN PROGRESS that I hadn't finished and was still beavering away at and hadn't saved anywhere but on my laptopo. In my brain, I was always putting the reminder to "snooze until next week" to back up the laptop.


I was a little surprised at my reaction. I went into zen state - sure, I was sad and I feel a wrench in my stomach every time I think of those photos and all those hours of work gone - but I just mumbled "it's only stuff". When I place it into the context of my life, and everything that's important to me - my friends, my family, my health, my brain, my current state of happiness - it doesn't really matter. If someone stole my laptop 12 months ago, we'd have had a very different girl. Tears, guilt for not backing up (that's still present, but not in the hideous way I am often affected by feelings of guilt), possible rage. Sure, I'd like to wring their scrawny little necks, but not really. Is happiness like Valium? Does it dull pain? I don't think so... But I sure think it helps reprioritise. There are certain thoughts that bring instant tears to my eyes - no matter my happiness - but they are for the things I know I truly value, and they sure as hell don't include many material objects.

So if your date doesn't call, and if your laptop disappears how much does it really matter? When we have so much more in our lives that make us what we are - treasures! - blips like this can hardly mean very much when we have the considerable gift of perspective.