Finding the Zen in not so Zen Moments

The zen I found to day was difficult to recognize at first. See the wife and I were an hour late meeting the riding group for our Tuesday night dinner ride.

Tonight we were eating at Mattie's Rt 66 Steakhouse. Now usually I would just say we went to a resturant and give a location. However, tonight I believe Mattie's deserves a mention (aka plug) by name. To explain why, I have to give you a little local news. One of our small town elementary schools recently had an oubreak of meningitus. Sadly it has resulted in the death of two young children. But, to me even sadder is the story of one of the children who contracted the bacteria. He is an elementary school child who has now had to have all four limbs removed to save his life. Unfortunately the parents did not have adequate insurance, and the specialist necessary were well out of state where the coverage under Sooner Care does not cover.

So a couple of national chains, including Chile's were going to donate 10% of all sales tonight to the family. But our riding group had already planned to go to Mattie's for tonight. We were going to change the ride so as to make sure the family recieved the assistance from our dining. However, one of our members thought to call Mattie's and let them know we would probably not be there and would schedule for another Tuesday, call and let them know. (When we are going to a small local resturant we try to call and give them a heads up because sometimes our group on Tuesday can outnumber the total number of regular customers for a mom & pop local resturant.) After apologizing for having to reschedule, the member explained exactly why we were rescheduling. Well Mattie was so wonderful, she agreed to give us 10% of everything we spent to donate to the family. So we didn't reschedule, and we got a nice little check to give the family as well.

Not exactly the most uplifting thought, raising money for a family and a child who has just lost all his limbs. But it is really nice to see someone step up and help out, when they didn't have to. After all, all we were doing was exactly what we would be doing anyway, no effort on our part to eat out. But Maggie went the extra mile that was not necessary.

The other not so zen moment that occured this evening was more difficult to see the zen in. See, I was polishing the new Harley, which goes against my very nature. The old "I'd rather ride than wash," has gone out the window with all that chrome. Can't let it begin looking bad, the bike just shines when it is cleaned up. So, since I am not used to doing this polishing, we were a little late getting away from the house to meet the group for dinner.

The wife and I ran the 45min over to where the group meets to ride to dinner, but we were about 12 min late. The group had already left, so I headed to where I believed the resturant to be, about 20+ min down the road to the South. Not seeing the resturant I did what any guy would do.... no not ask directions, we all know that doesn't work... I pulled out the phone and Googled, then Google mapped. According to the map I wasn't that far off, just about half a mile.

But when we went to the location Google had mapped for me, the resturant was not there. Worse, the address didn't even match, and being a rural address I had no idea where it might be located. Called the resturant only to find that it was North of the meeting location, the oposite direction from what we traveled. Not only did we have to go back, but we had to go about the same distance in the opposite direction. So we finally made it to Mattie's, only an hour late for dinner.

What zen was there in this misfortunate bout of misdirection? Well, after contemplation I decided it could have been a much worse evening. After all, it was a beautiful 80 degrees, the sun was shining, I was on my new Harley crusing around with the woman I love stradled behind me, and I got almost 2hrs of riding that I was not expecting. What could be more peaceful and zen than that?

So remember when there is a dark cloud, it may not make for a pretty day, but you don't have to worry about a sunburn.


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