The power of letting go

Two days ago, my wife and I were flying to Denver late in the evening. We booked this flight months ago, and I was 100% confident that the flight was leaving from Oakland airport. When we arrived at TSA and scanned our boarding pass… the truth came out. 😰
OUR. FLIGHT. WAS. LEAVING. FROM. SAN. JOSE.

I knew that a past Winnie would have overreacted and lost his cool, allowing my emotions to take control of the situation. I would have ruined the beginning of the trip by trying to reject the guilt I felt from making a mistake and likely have started an argument with my wife to absolve me of the “blame”.

Today, I decided to do something different.
I. let. go.
I let go of my ego, my pride, my always having to be right. I faced my guilt head on and took the blame on the chin and apologized to my wife sincerely for my mistake. Usually, I think we would have started bickering, but my change in attitude disarmed the situation.

Thus, we quickly called my wife’s brother to turn back around and come pick us up to make way to San Jose.

Within minutes of getting in the car, things were already back in a good mood and we were even laughing about the situation. We were grateful
that we decided to come early to use the airport lounge at Oakland airport. Because of this, we had plenty of time to make it to San Jose (also our flight got delayed 15 minutes). We even got boba on the way there.

I am starting to see a change in myself, and it makes me grateful to have an opportunity like this to grow and learn.

A stressful situation that could have led to a resent, blame, and bad energy became a funny story to tell and a lesson for life.

- Winnie