Bouncing back

“Fortune favors the prepared mind.” - Louis Pasteur

We had a learning experience on Wednesday that exceeded expectations. Our topic was “bouncing back from adversity.” I had assumed it would be lively. We would have input from people with a lot of experience on topic as well as a very useful article I had summarized in a handout. We had not included in our plan anything that would allow us to actually practice bouncing back.

Purely by chance, we got that missing piece. I’m not making this up.

It had been scheduled to begin at 6 PM at Vendome. When I arrived at Vendome about 5:40 it was CLOSED.

My first response was disbelief and irritation. I put a handwritten sign on the front door of Vendome to indicate the event had moved to Second Cup, a five minute walk away. It took me about fifteen or twenty minutes to realize what a timely opportunity the closure of Vendome had been.

Within about 30 minutes we had five active participants at Second Cup. The discussion led us all to the realization not only that this had given us a chance to practice bouncing back, but that Second Cup was the quiet place we had been looking for. We quickly came to the decision that even our sessions at Kawa would soon be moved to Second Cup. Louis Pasteur said it quite well. Adversity can lead to good fortune if you are mentally prepared.

We’ll have one more session next Tuesday at Kawa so that others have time to learn about the change of venue, then we’ll move the Tuesday sessions to Second Cup in Kensington. When Vendome re-opens, we’ll see how quiet their space is, but for the time being our Wednesday sessions will also be at Second Cup, across from the Safeway in Kensington.

As a result of the experience on Wednesday, the participants chose to develop the same topic further next Wednesday.

Arthur