Thursday, January 29, 2015

The Unintended Kindness of Running Late

"Surprise is the greatest gift which life can grant us."
~Boris Pasternak

Sometimes, it feels as though I am always in rush-rush mode.  As I drove to a business meeting recently, I came across a closed lane on the highway.  Anticipating that I might be a few minutes late, I called the person I was meeting to let him know.  "Our meeting was at 10?" he asked.  Uh-oh, I thought, and hoped that it was not earlier.  It turns out that he had mistakenly thought it was at 11 am.  He said that the fastest he could arrive was 10:30.  I told him it was no problem at all as I had plenty to keep me busy.  As it turns out, I arrived at our meeting place at 10:01.  But his being late gave me the unexpected gift of a half hour.  I was able to make a call, respond to e-mails and just catch my breath.  Most of the time, being late throws things off, annoys the other person and is just not good business.  But every so often, being late has an unexpected result.  And in my case, I decided that it was a little unintended -- and unanticipated -- kindness thrown my way.

No comments:

Post a Comment