Sometimes we just have to eat the chicken

“If you don’t like something, change it. If you can’t change it, change your attitude. Don’t complain.” – Maya Angelou
How I love simple words to declare a very complex point. Author and Poet Laureate Maya Angelou holds more than a gift for crafting words, her insight provokes introspection.
No all changes are huge and out of our control, some are just daily parts of life that we can take hold of or just allow them to make us miserable. When I was teaching, I remember nothing could bring about more grumbling and outright ruin someone’s day more than a daily schedule rearrangement. I am not just talking about set-in-their ways teachers, but 16-year-olds. If circumstances dictated that third period class would be held during the sixth period time slot, everyone seemed to walk around discombobulated and confused, with moaning served as the main dish in the cafeteria.
High school class scheduling is a minute change in the scheme of life, but how we handle the little ones sets us up for dealing with true difficulties in life.
I remember words shared on Oprah on Maya Angelou’s 70th birthday. During that hour, Angelou offered the simplest form of wisdom. "I've learned that you can tell a lot about a person by the way he/she handles these three things: a rainy day, lost luggage, and tangled Christmas tree lights."
Job loss, home foreclosure, and the big three: divorce, disease, and death can affect people’s lives forever. Handling this level of adversity requires not only a high degree of tenacity and strength, but the ability to accept weakness, to grieve and weep. Maybe the way we handle the little things paves the way for the great and seeming insurmountable challenges if or when they come our way.
How one exits a taxi into a puddle in driving rain on a busy street in fragile heels says a great deal about how one might manage the life-altering changes that could come our way without warning. I can say this with true sense of experience and wonder about myself because during my years in Shanghai, I travelled by taxi cab most days and have left them under these conditions many times. Now some times, I have laughed at my own bumbling and marched on my merry way, but others, well – let’s just say there have been cases when my hissy fits became spontaneous street-side entertainment.
Speaking of Shanghai, and on a simpler note in dealing with change, I am reminded of the early months in our move to China. We were warned not to buy meats at the local markets, but imports from Australia or New Zealand. Our systems were not used to the bacteria, and could make us sick, we were told. So, I bought the wildly expensive chicken, beef and pork from off continent until one day when I was on a jog past the international grocery store and saw a flat of meat stacked on a skid in the sun. I did not know how long it had been there, but all of a sudden, the origin of the meat had less meaning to me.
That day, I began what became a lovely relationship with the local “wet” market. I bought chicken, took it home and served it to my husband, Roger. Remember when we introduced new foods to our babies, one food at a time, so as to check for adverse reactions? Well, I remembered this technique and quietly fed my husband chicken for a couple days, then watched his health and “behaviors.” He seemed comfortable and happy, there did not appear to be any stomach episodes, so I bought pork and followed the same plan. Now while I am not entirely proud of trying this experiment at his expense and without consent, it did work and we enjoyed local meats and vegetables for the duration of our time in China.
I know dietary changes are small in the many of life challenges that come our way, but how we manage them is a great indicator of how we will hold up when the storms roll in and threaten to drown us in despair. Will we grab a lifeline and pull, untangle the lights, dry our dripping, hair, and just eat the chicken?
Please share your thoughts on change and resilience in our daily walk. Tomorrow, I will discuss carrots, eggs, and coffee beans.