Can you be grateful when things go wrong?

This morning I read a post by Lisa Von Domek from Dallas, and it was a Sunday post where she counted her blessings, and it made me think of what happened to me yesterday. I had been on my feet all day Saturday talking and speaking to 250 investors in a meeting in San Fransisco. Even my property manager who is in her 30's was exhausted and that meant I was pretty tired also, so I looked forward to the nonstop light back in Oklahoma City at 10:50 in the morning. My builder who was also with me always go to the AMEX Centurion Lounge at the United wing for breakfast and so we sat and ate and had a recap conversation about the day before, and then we headed to our gate. Before I plane would depart there was a plane at the gate going to Burbank that had a gauge problem that had to be fixed and a 5 minute delay become a 15, then a 45, and then an over an hour issue. This can make a person extremely angry and frustrated and I could see people going up to the counter and leaving with a frown, but as Paul Harvey used to say, and now for the rest of the story.

SFO is a busy airport so gates could not be changed and unknown to the frustrated travelers going to Oklahoma City our plane was full of passengers waiting to get off who sat on the tarmac for that hour and fifteen minutes. The gate was right across from United's customer service counter and talk about frowns getting off the plane! When you see over 40 people headed to the customer service counter because they missed flights, and there was only two people at the counter handling the issues, now that is another level of frustration. The worst thing for me was I arrived in Oklahoma City one hour late after having some wonderful sashimi from the airport and yes it is really good, and a couple glasses of wine. For those on the plane coming in they had to endure the frustration of sitting in a plane going nowhere and probably having to miss something important.

I am not saying that you should never be upset or frustrated but it might be helpful to get out of yourself and think about what someone else had to endure that was worse than you. Believe you me Lisa, I had it better and compared to them, I certainly was counting my blessings.