Monthly Musing – September 2026 – Stay calm

I have not been calm today.  In fact, I’ve been very cross, sitting in the car in the supermarket car park on a phone call with not so small daughter who has left getting her car service and MOT to the very last minute, and has now found out that there’s something wrong with her car and the garage owner won’t pass the MOT  or let her drive anywhere until it’s fixed.

It’s annoying, it’s going to be expensive, but most of all, it’s frustrating as I asked not so small daughter months ago to book her car into the garage before the date when her MOT ran out, and she left it until the car could only just be squeezed in before the expiry date.  Finding out there was a problem sooner wouldn’t have been any less annoying or expensive, but there would have been more time to consider the options.

I’m finding these days that I like to have time to consider the options; my days of “fire fighting” are over now that I don’t have to deal with forgotten homework or projects, schoolfriends unexpectedly staying for dinner, being the taxi service when a bus or a train didn’t turn up … and I’ll be honest, I like these quieter times!

Of course, it’s not possible to live a life without a bit of drama going on.  There’s always going to be something that crops up unexpectedly and we’re going to have to deal with it on the spot, and on the whole, I think life is richer for the variety.  What I’ve discovered, though, is that the calmer I am, the easier it is to deal with the problem.  That sounds like a no-brainer, but when the situation lands in front of me, being calm is often the last thing that I am!

I’m finding that meditating in the mornings helps as it starts my day off in a calm way.  I don’t always feel like it; some mornings I’m much more inclined to get out of bed and get stuck into my day, but I’ve decided that it’s part of my day and I AM going to do it, and I do feel better for it.  There’s no big performance with it; I usually stay in bed (although I do sit up as a lying down meditation is also known as a snooze …), wrap myself up in a cosy blanket, set a timer for 10 minutes and just sit quietly.  Sometimes the day tries to crowd in, but I remind myself that I’ve got another 23 hours and 50 minutes to deal with all of that and I’m allowed to have a whole 10 minutes to myself.  As the minutes tick on, I am always glad that I’ve done it.

You’d be entirely forgiven for thinking that I hadn’t bothered this morning if you’d seen me ranting on the phone in the supermarket car park, but even as I was talking to not so small daughter, I was able to go through the options in my mind.  Meditating helps me to have a less scattered mind and as a result, even though I may not look calm, I’m certainly not in the frazzle that I have been at times over the years.  In fact, the more I meditate, the faster I can return to a calmer state, like a stretched elastic band pinging back into a relaxed shape.

As for not so small daughter’s car, it’s back on the road again.  Calm is restored and the car’s new suspension bushes are doing whatever it is they are supposed to do.

“Maybe don’t leave it till the last minute in future?” I suggested.

“I think you’re right,” she said.  “Can you remind me a bit earlier next year?”