Sometimes you come to that point in your life where you simply manifest the things you’ve learned from all the other experiences meant to be “life lessons.” You realize that what you are experiencing is no longer a lesson, but a situation you respond to successfully because you’ve already learned how. There’s a different, quieter feeling associated with it, a way of observing yourself that is changed.

That is what today was like. A chain of mundane frustrations. I have a life insurance policy whose premium is deducted at certain intervals from my credit union account. I wanted to transfer it to my checking account at a different bank. My bank is partners with the insurance company, so it seemed like it was a simple matter of routing numbers. But it wasn’t. There were many phone calls and a labyrinthine process to navigate. I could sense the echoes of old programs running in my head, suggesting that now would be a good time to get frustrated. But I didn’t. I listened to the voice on the other end of the call, really listened and heard them as a person. They weren’t causing the problem. The explanations they gave made perfect sense. A tiny voice suggested I get irrate, but it just didn’t make sense. I saw that I needed to halt the process and start over at the very beginning. The problem was swiftly resolved.

Same thing with the heat and electrical problems in my apartment. I *believe* the landlord is doing his best to fix the problem. He isn’t the problem. The nature of winter and the poor wiring of the house are simply states that exist. If I am patient, these things will resolve. Complaining will only soothe my ego. I am really saying, “If you acknowledge there is a problem here, you are validating my importance. I am important enough for you to take special care to see to my needs.” But I don’t need that kind of validation from my landlord. I told him I was frustrated with the situation because that was honest. That’s all I needed to do. We connected as two people trying to resolve a situation, not as opponents accusing responsibility for things outside of anyone’s control.

The old programs simply failed to execute. I even thought, “Shouldn’t I get mad about this?” But I didn’t think that the situation was developing my character. My character has been developed already and I simply enjoyed the fruit of that past labor.

I could go on. The day was full of small disappointments and “no” and frustrations, and I was at peace with it.