The watermelon incident

I shared in a recent blog post that I had been sick. I thankfully recovered shortly after. And then somehow got sick again!

Being sick a second time definitely has presented even more opportunities to remind myself to ‘just be sick’. And it has been an important reminder of the value of connection and compassion. This has been a recurring lesson for me this past year. One incident in particular last summer stands out.

I remember I was having a rather stressful day and took a break to get my grocery pickup order. (If you have never tried grocery pickup, or delivery, it is a wonderful way to subtract something from your to do list!). While waiting for the order to be brought out to my car, I was engaged in a mix of ruminating about my stress and people watching. At one point a gentleman came out of the store with his groceries and as he pushed his cart back into the corral he inadvertently forgot about the small round watermelon that was on the bottom of his cart.

The watermelon proceeded to roll off the cart and into the traffic lane in front of the store. Just then the bus came around the corner. The watermelon continued to roll and the bus continued to drive right into its path. The watermelon was spared by the front wheels of the bus but it didn’t get so lucky with the back wheels. And just like that the watermelon was flattened and splattered across the road.

Sitting there in my car watching through the front window it was as if all of this was occurring on a movie screen - I could see everything happening almost in slow motion and I was helpless to do anything about it. I really felt like I had witnessed a small tragedy!

What struck me most however was the positive shift in my own mood that then occurred. Not in a ‘look on the bright side, things could be worse’ kind of way. But actually because of the empathy I had for the man who lost his watermelon (and for the watermelon itself!). Connecting with the common humanity in that moment of loss, allowed me to have compassion for this stranger, and by extension have more compassion for myself and my own struggles as well. Which then didn’t feel quite as heavy.

So while I don’t wish a stressful day, or a month of sickness, or a smashed watermelon on anyone, I do hope that we all can connect with whatever sources of compassion are available to us. And hopefully knowing that we are not alone will make the struggles a little lighter.