For two weeks now I have been riding the DC Metro across the city from Cheverly, MD to Tenley Town, followed by a nice mile or so walk to the American University/Wesley Theological Seminary campus. The trip requires just one transfer about half way through from the orange line to the red line at Metro Center. It takes about an hour from point to point and I try to leave time each morning to stop and grab some breakfast at Tenley Town. On this my last day of classes I boarded the train at about 7:15am and was on my way just the same as every other day with one exception; the difference today was that I was for some reason a bit sleepy still (you can begin to guess where this is going). I am not a morning person, but have had no problem being up at 6am every day until today. I sat down and began to read “The Express” (which is a mini version of the Washington Post handed out as you get on the Metro), but the news today was apparently not compelling enough to pull me out of my sleepy state and I began to doze in and out as we came to each stop. At some point the out had no in until I found myself two stops past my transfer station. At this point I could have panicked or become frustrated. I had options, but who wants to wake up in a place where they did not intend to go. I could have crossed over to the other platform and taken the train back two stops to my transfer, but that would have taken twenty plus minutes that I didn’t really want to use for that. The thing in my favor is that I have spent enough time walking around DC that I knew I could walk to a red line station and pick up my journey there. Instead of feeling like this was a tragedy I moved quickly from the feeling of “where am I and how do I get back to where I need to be,” to thoughts of what seemed to me an opportunity to perhaps discover something new, a new bakery or a new café to grab breakfast, or something else altogether unexpected and fascinating. That seemed like the only choice I had to make in order to redeem my morning thus far.

With this in mind I headed out into the light of a gorgeous DC morning and proceeded north towards my new transfer station. As it turned out the “Marvelous Market: bakery and café” was about half way between the two stations and I found a delightful selection of pastries; meaning that I would not have to stop at Tenley Town and really wouldn’t loose much if any time at all. The pastry alas ended up being good, not “marvelous,” but still all of this could have ruined my morning or been quite frustrating if I had let it. Instead I chose to turn it into an opportunity to experience something new within the context of an unexpected change in my routine. It’s actually a great and simple lesson in making lemonade out of lemons. Sometimes we shut down and when things happen outside of our norm we don’t know how to deal with them. When we end up past where we were intending to go or pushed beyond where we thought we needed to be, we can easily get frustrated or angry. We have to decide whether to feel lost in our new reality or excited about the new possibilities. The story would be better if the pastry was the best I ever had (marvelous), but maybe the point is better taken that even a merely good pastry is better than letting your morning be ruined. It’s so easy for us to let the little things get in the way of what could be. You never know when falling asleep on the train will be a good way to start you day.