Around 1997 in my home country, I was working in a company that provided electrical service in the City I was living at that time. The City had a Community Program where people from the community could meet with us and pitch different electrical projects for their communities. At that time, I was the director of that program, and there It was when I met one of the fantastic Engineers of the company, Ms. Rosa.
One day, we received a call informing us that Rosa had a car accident, where she suffered multiple fractures, but she had survived. One of my co-workers and I went to see her at the hospital. She was in her room; she had a leg and both arms fracture, and one of her eyes with sight problems and a lot of cuts in her body.
After we said hello and she answered back at us, I realized that she was able to talk, to see, and to hear us. She told us about the accident. After seeing her fully conscious and articulated. It was when I said out loud, “you should be grateful to be alive, your brain is intact, and all you need is time to recover from the fractures.” Both of them saw me as if I was a rare animal. I felt so embarrassed, thinking that the comment was very imprudent of me.
That day that I visited my co-worker Rosa at the hospital, I then realized that I had very different thinking from others around me. I remembered my grandmother from the maternal side; she taught me a phrase: “No hay mal que por bien no venga” which would translate in English “Every cloud has a silver lining,” and I have been practicing this phrase ever since at all the “negative” events in my life.
These days, we are facing COVID19, and it is a worldwide concern. And the question here is, How are we facing this pandemic? These eventually will show us what kind of understanding and discerning thinking we have to face this kind of adversity.
In this sort of circumstance is when we see the worst or the right side of ourselves, and we also could complain every day about what we cannot change. Or we can see the positive on everything. The only thing we can do is to follow the CDC recommendations, precautions, and take advantage of all the useful things about this pandemic.
And this is my side of this story, as we can explore different ways: such as starting an online course. Calling or doing a video call with our loved ones. Learning a new recipe, or doing some exercise like dancing your favorite music, writing that particular project you wanted to do, sharing pictures of you with your family from when you were little, or asking your oldest uncles, cousins, or grandmothers to tell you those stories that they can remember.
It all depends on your mindset and your positive thinking. It’s not absurd to see the positive side of all “negative” events that we face in our lives. For example, you can be on the lookout for what kind of things you can learn from every hardship experience. Also, you can practice how to increase your positiveness every day. After a while, you will see how knowledgeable and skillful you become, and you will feel much better. There are always options where you can see the glass half empty or half full.