Anything Can Happen

After I wrote my last entry, I logged off and crumpled into my bed. I resolved to call my mother and brother and beg. [I realize that this is called asking for help in other families and by other people. For me and with my relatives, it is begging.] I did it. One voicemail left; just waiting on the call back. It would come eventually and yes I knew the answer would be positive; not all that I wanted but something: enough to get by on. Just like if you were to sit in the middle of a deserted country road you know a car will come along sometime. That’s why the road is there; cars use it. You just have to wait.

While I waited I could have had several sad and despairing thoughts. I could have been anxious or hyper-vigilant because of fear and adrenaline. Instead, I remembered I made a decision to practice Zen meditation. I practiced. Afterwards, I played an mp3 made at the Insight Meditation society. It was a talk given by Carol Wilson which was entitled “Anything Can Happen”.

This is the link: http://www.dharmaseed.org/teacher/39 and just look up the title Anything Can Happen: Faith and Confidence In Awareness.


She reminded me that just as bad things can happen; good things can happen. Rather than wait in fear for the bad; why not wait in expectation for the good. That’s my lesson. She is a Buddhist so she would not agree with the expectation angle. After all Buddhism is about letting go of attachments, desires, expectations, and being present in the now. But this is the best way I can summarize what I learned.

A man in my therapy group said something similar once and I have carried it with me since: “Things can always get worse. But who do you want with you when they do.”
Anything Can Happen. Any good thing can happen at any time. The phone rang after I had finished with the mp3 and the meditation. It was a placement agency. Could I start a job tomorrow paying $20/hr? Any good thing can happen. Ten minutes passed and the person called me back and said “Don’t report to the job site tomorrow. They want to interview for the position.” This could take several weeks and you still don’t have a job, food, or money. Anything can happen. Interesting huh?


The phone has literally not wrung with news of any possible job assignments for anything in more than six months. Then in one day; one particular day; bam!


Since then, the phone has been ringing. It rang the next day and the day after that. Yesterday, I had an interview with YET ANOTHER TEMPORARY STAFFING AGENCY. Then something really incredible happened as I was flunking a grammar and spelling test; I heard the guy talk to someone and say “Yes, Ann Wright is in the office right now and I have her resume. Can I send it to you?” (Keyboard keys clicking and then the phone he hangs up. Then it rings again later “Well she can come by for an interview as early as today….Oh tomorrow would be better? At 4pm? Sure. I’ll confirm it with her.”

And as simple as it seems I have a real job lead: my first in months. I haven’t gotten the job yet. I’m still unemployed. But Anything Can Happen.