Did anyone ever steal anything from you? Did you lose something?
If yes, I know how you feel…
Two weeks ago they broke into our house and they took some things that were very important to us:
- our computers with all our work, the last months of work that didn’t have a backup and my hard-disk were I had all my backups;
- my iPad with all my notes, thoughts, with Cut The Rope levels, all my motivational posters drawings…
- all professional photo cameras, lenses and memory cards that we will not buy anymore because of their high value. All the photos that were inside and that we haven’t downloaded.
- my cute earrings and my watch that I received as present from my boyfriend;
- my beautiful business bag that I bought on a trip to Parma and the super comfortable cameras backpack that we took with us all over the world to take photos.
And still, not the material value counts, but is the sentimental value and the strong negative emotions we’ve been through in the moment we found out what happened. We were out of town and the neighbor called us while we were on our way back. The last hour of our trip till we got home was stress, silence, prayer, desperation, negative thoughts, positive encouragement.
The moment we entered the house it was terrible because we found the house upside down and we didn’t find the things that we were hoping to still have there. That night was difficult to fall asleep even if we slept somewhere else and we came back home only after a few days.
The house is the same, but the feeling inside it is not the same anymore: a bit of our security disappeared. If they did it once, this means they can do it again no matter how many precaution measures we might take.
But after a few days we started focus of the positive things. I am convinced that all things happen in life for a reason. And if I cannot find the reason, I can at least learn from the situation and look towards the future.
So, what did I learn and what are the positive things?
- Luckily we were not in the house when this happened. You never know how violent thieves can be;
- Now we are starting all over again, we are recreating some of our work from scratch. We have all the time we need, we have the right attitude and the tools and we can create even better things than the ones we lost;
- We saw who really cares. We have so many friends and people around us that care and want the best for us. It’s not worth to lose trust in others just because of a robbery;
- We finally met most of our neighbors cause they came to see what happened and they offered support. I think neighbors are important to help and give support when needed. And communicate as soon as we see something suspicious;
- My mother told me: “We work to make money and collect stuff during our whole life. So you have enough time to recover and do even better. What’s important is that you are ok“;
- I learned that holding my anger inside will not help…I let go of the anger and the second day I could think clearly, be calm and plan for the next steps;
- Sometimes we do need to get rid of the old stuff in order to get new things;
- Sometimes we need to remember ourselves not to attach too much of the material things and treasure the sentimental value and its memory;
- Learn and start to back-up online all the work and personal documents;
- We are now aware of the real danger and we are taking the necessary precautions;
- We are grateful for what we have left and for what we are going to create from now on;
- I am thankful for the people that were next to us, for the ones that helped us and for having now all the energy to get over the moment;
- We chose to be happy no matter how much we have or no matter how much we lost. We chose to see the positive. We chose to focus on our health and our relationship more than on the things we lost. New opportunities come now in our way that maybe we didn’t see before.
People lose their lives, lose their health, lose friends and family. We only lost some expensive stuff, photos, documents and a bit of our feeling of security. But all of them can be recovered in a way or another! So, why worry?
Remember what Randy Pausch was saying in his Last lecture?
“When I was studying for my PhD, I took something called ‘the second qualifier,’ which I can now defensively say was the second worst thing in my life after chemotherapy. When I complained to my mother about how hard and awful the test was, she leaned over, patted me on the arm and said, ‘We know just how you feel, honey. And remember, when your father was your age he was fighting the Germans.”
Did you ever have negative events in your life?
If yes, what did you learn from them?
