I locked my keys in my car over the weekend. I was parked in front of the shed where we store all our food for homeless outreach. All of the food for that week that had just been picked up? You guessed it. Still inside my car. My keys were in plain sight on the front seat. My friend, John, looked inside with me, then at me. He headed for the antenna to unscrew it while I headed to the other shed to grab screwdrivers. We were a good five minutes in to prying the top of the car door open enough to slide the now bent antenna in to hit the unlock button before John's wife, Ruthie, even noticed anything was going on.
"What do you mean you locked your keys in your car?!" Ruthie's eyes went wide.
"Exactly what I said. They're on the front seat." We popped the screwdrivers out of the driver's side door and moved to try the passenger side.
"But you're so calm about it. I never would have known you l0cked your keys in your car." Ruthie moved to block the sun for us so we could see.
"Doesn't do any good to get excited over it. Nothing I can do except try to get the car unlocked." And with that, the antenna hit the unlock button, letting me in to my car so I could unload all the boxes of food.
Too often, we react in a way that's not going to help the situation. We panic, cry, scream, jump up and down, when all we really need to do is stay calm for five minutes, do a little work, and things are back to normal.
Choose carefully how and what you react to.
