Sharing some wisdom and a smile

Esto lo escribió mi hermana Rosa y me pareció tan chévere para compartirlo con el resto de los amiguitos.

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Even in the windowless world of an office environment and the dark corners of the copier room we can learn some things if we let it be. I just wanted to share with you some insight that “illuminated” me a few minutes ago: “If we are open, we may find wisdom in the smallest and most unexpected interactions with other human beings, with nature and even with the soulless machine.” Here are a couple of teachings from the copier/printer:

1-The printer

A couple of months ago, I was highly tense, stressed, frustrated; there were lots of challenges blasting at me from different fronts, work, home, bureaucracy and my patience had been tried one too many times. In the midst of it I had to turn in some paperwork and needed a printout, when a red light came on at the printer with a blinking message stating “machine is having functional problems, please turn off and start again.” My reaction speeded thru shock, frustration, and disbelieve, and in less than 2 seconds it turned into contagious belly laughter, so deep and loud that tears were pouring down my face as I held myself to avoid falling. This went on for a good ten minutes and the folks surrounding me starting laughing with me or at me without knowing the cause. Just for that it was a brilliant moment. The idea of shutting my door and putting a sign outside stating “I’m having functional problems, will shut down and re-start at a later day” seemed so comical to me that still to this day, the thought brings a smile. So now, the question: if a machine, being as complicated as it is but never close to the complexities of us human beings, may shut down, take a break and start again when it is overloaded or having “functional problems”, why can’t we?

2-The copier

Today, while making copies through the feeder, the machine all of a sudden stopped in the middle of the job. Again a red light came on and a blinking message stated: “machine is self checking and will continue shortly.” All of a sudden I realized how many times we may be pushing through one task after another without pausing for a moment and doing an internal check. How am I doing? What am I feeling? Do I need to walk outside and breath some fresh air, feel the sun on my skin, see a bird fly, or listen to a cricket? Have I been drinking enough water? Have I smiled or made someone smiled in the last hour? I’m I still awake through life or just going numbly through the motions?

So, there, I just did an internal check and realized I haven’t done something creative in a while, so here is a little writing to put a “check-mark” on that.

A smile back at you.

Rosa Verdeja