Saturn in opposition

Since I understood that blaming others and the world is useless, I feel I enjoy the present more and I am proud to be able to smile even when things don’t go as planned.

I’m at the post office. The usual Thursday afternoon’s post office vibe, with a dozen plus crowd waiting their turn and 5 employees working. It’s hot and air con has not been switched on yet. Two kids run around and a dog wails. 
I take the number for the despatch queue (careful not to get another queue number or else!). Two minutes pass, no number is called, no one at the counter. Employees keep their eyes on the computer screen and nothing happens.

Another 3 minutes pass.
…
Something is happening in the back office, there’s some hustle, some confusion.

Customers are getting nervous. It happens almost imperceptibly, a huff here, an impatient glance to the clock there and slowly but surely all the people begin to get annoyed at the long wait. They begin to mutter to each other “you know when you get in but you don’t know when you’ll get out” “they’re just pretending to work” and so on.
A new number appears on the display but no one gets up.

THIRTY THREE…!

No response, silence falls in the room. The air gets even hotter. People begin to curse through gritted teeth... They don’t want to be heard, yet the complaining is there and very contagious.
I observe everything slightly amused. Post office queues become a metaphor of real life.
I have two choices: either join in the complaining and general drag or keep quiet and find a better way to pass the time.

I’m also late and I have to teach a class later but I whip out my phone and start listening to music.
I relax immediately and focus calmly on the sound.

Life goes on around me (there’ll be a long wait as computers are off). The post office employees try to explain and calm down the angry customers who must pay the phone bill and withdraw cash...! NOW!!!
It’s really like this. Every day we have a choice. Responsibility for our life is OURS. We have TOTAL POWER to change the way our day goes.
We can get to the Post Office and sigh every 3 seconds or we may opt for reading a book, listening to music, looking out the window, anything that we fancy, really.

The way I see it, complaining is meaningless. I don’t like what I’m dealing with but I can change it? GOOD, then I will DO something to change it. I don’t like what I’m dealing with but I have no control over it? Then it is USELESS to complain about it.
Let’s just stop feeling sorry for ourselves and let’s act instead! It’s not easy, I know, yet every day I Make an effort. Always. In everything and every situation I find myself in.
I teach yoga classes in the park. It rains.
Can I do something about it? Nope! Do I get upset? Of course I do! But, instead of complaining about how the universe is against me, I simply accept it, hoping the following week the weather will be better.
Since I understood that blaming others and the world is useless, I feel I enjoy the present more and I am proud to be able to smile even when things don’t go as planned. If you enter the vicious circle made of “it’s so and so’s fault”, “I’ve got bad luck” “Saturn is definitely in opposition” etc, you will wrongly believe that we have no control over our life, that we are no responsible for it and that we will not be able to overcome the difficult times with OUR own strengths.
In the meantime, in the post office is pure havoc, everyone is complaining but, guess what? Nothing gets fixed. I decide to leave because I learnt with experience that being around negative people has a draining effect on my health.
I shake off the post office, its angry employees, the customers’ disappointed expressions and make my exit. It’s sunny outside!