Following My Own Advice

I’m going to consider this a “bonus post” as it was not something I’d planned to write, much less publish, but it’s timely and – I hope – a bit amusing. Moreover, I was struck about how something that happened last night wove through several of the themes from past posts that I’ve done and I thought it might be fun to capture that here as it shows that I at least try to practice what I preach.

Here’s what happened.

We live in a suburban neighborhood and, last weekend, my neighbor Matt texted me saying they were going out of town for spring break and that his mother-in-law would be staying at the house to watch the place and take care of their dogs. He was wondering if he could leave our number for her on the off chance there were any problems. Of course I said “yes” but figured I’d not hear anything more about it. Well, I was wrong.

Last night, around 11pm, our doorbell rings. It’s Matt’s mother-in-law (“Poppy”) saying that she’d accidentally locked herself – and the dogs – out of the house and was wondering if she could use our phone to call Matt. Of course we brought her inside, called Matt together and headed back over to the house to see what could be done with Matt on speakerphone.

Lesson #1 – Hit a Roadblock? Try Jumping Over It.

Poppy, being in the house alone for several days and not knowing anyone, was feeling anxious so she was sure to lock every door in the place. This is what got her stuck outside when the backdoor accidentally closed behind her. However, going back to one of my earliest posts about overcoming obstacles, I started mentally picturing her back inside the house and started thinking of different ways that might happen. By the time we finished our short walk back, I had at least three different things to try.

Lessons #2 & #3 – Show True Grit and The Importance of Resiliency

We started with the code to the garage door which I’d hoped would be our easy answer. And, while we could get into the garage, we found that Poppy’s door locking had extended to the door to the garage as well. However, the door handle was one of those fancy keypad models so Matt went searching for the code and eventually found it. “Success!” I thought… until we discovered that the battery had died and the code wouldn’t take.

So we next went back the scene of the crime, the back door, and things were equally bleak there. The seals around the door were tight, the hinges were (unsurprisingly) on the inside and there was no obvious way to bypass the lock. Matt also confirmed that there was no key hidden anywhere. My wife had joined us by then and tried her best “open the door with a credit card like they do on TV” but to no avail.

Then I started staring at the windows.

We began moving screens out of the way and attempting to push the windows up. We tried the two by the back door – no luck. I went over to the family room. Again, nothing. Dining room? Locked up tight. My brain was already thinking about other options including getting my 24 foot ladder out to check the second floor windows or admitting ultimate defeat and calling a 24 hour locksmith when I discovered that the kitchen window wasn’t locked.

Doing a little happy jig, it still took a ladder and my wife volunteering to contort herself to fit through the small window but we eventually got Poppy back inside.

Lesson #4 – We’re Surrounded by Icebergs

I admit it – it was actually kind of fun “breaking into” my neighbor’s house as it was an unusual challenge and something I’d never had to do before. However, it would have not have been unreasonable to have felt a bit frustrated or put out for having to deal with this when I’d normally be going to bed. Thankfully, my mind isn’t typically wired that way but, as we were getting everyone inside and packing up, I started thinking about this experience from Poppy’s perspective.

While I’d like to think we live in a pretty safe neighborhood, the reality is that she’s an older woman who was going to be all by herself for the better part of a week in an unfamiliar place. Locking every door is understandable and, on this particularly windy spring evening, it’s not surprising that a door might accidentally shut behind you. And the icing on the cake was that Poppy had to turn to two strangers for help late at night and probably felt more than a little foolish for having been the cause of all this.

Seeing the situation through her eyes, I felt a good deal of empathy for Poppy and so my wife and I spent a few extra minutes reassuring her that what she’d done made perfect sense but that we’d be next door if she needed anything else. She was incredibly sweet and kept thanking us and, hopefully, now feels a bit more at ease in the house.

Ultimately, though, it was the understanding of what motivated her actions that helped everything click and turn what could have been a frustrating situation into a very relatable one.

Lesson #5 – Optimism = Hope + Patience

Our little adventure lasted maybe 45 minutes and, looking back, I can see how it was comprised of a series of creative solutions that mostly didn’t pan out.

We’d successfully gotten into the garage but then found the door to the house was locked. But the door handle had that keypad and Matt eventually got the code for it… only to realize that the battery was dead (which first required searching online to find the manual for the lock that gave us the clue that it was a battery issue). Or how later, when we were standing by the backdoor, I noticed that the two nearby windows had locks facing different directions so I figured one was probably open… until Matt told us that he did that intentionally to confuse would-be burglars. And on it went.

Interestingly, through all these minor setbacks, I found that I didn’t lose hope that we’d get Poppy and the pups back into the house. I didn’t yet know how that would happen but that mental attitude kept the gears turning. I remained confident that we’d have a good outcome and was willing to work my way through each option until we finally found one that succeeded.

Optimism can be a powerful force and, what’s more, it can be infectious. By the end, we were all coming up with different ideas and had several more to try had that window over the sink not been left unlocked.

Thanks for reliving our little adventure – and some of my earlier posts – with me. (If nothing else, I hope we’ve all learned to have a spare key somewhere nearby. 🙂)