What If The Worst Thing Happened?

I woke up this morning and the worst thing that can ever happen to a girl living in the modern world has occurred. My phone was completely dead, like real dead, not out of battery dead. All I saw was a black screen with the white apple logo on it. I tap, I poke, I press all the side buttons and nothing happens. It's completely out. No...no...no.. nooo!! Please no!, I scream. I am in a tiny beach town in Mexico where the closest pharmacy is at least one hour away.

I had established a beautiful rhythm to my days since I got here to Akumal Bay. I wake up, practice my morning “ah” meditation and take my coffee out by the beach, which is my front yard, with my little doggy Blake always tagging along. I then go back to my beach front condo and write a few chapters in the memoire I’m currently working on. Then I do my asana yoga practice, take a shower and go to La Buena Vida, a local restaurant beach walking distance from me, to grab some tacos and a margarita.

But my rhythm erupted today because of this iPhone incident. I had a plan for how my day was going to go, but life had a different one for me today. I spent the next 6 hours troubleshooting, chatting with apple support through my laptop, with no success whatsoever. I went to the concierge office of my condo to continue troubleshooting, as the apple customer support agent that I was chatting with told me to try to connect my broken iPhone to a different computer. Still, it did not work because they had a PC, and the closest apple store is in Texas. The concierge person told me the owners of condo 6 had just arrived last night from the Bay Area in California and they said they have a MacBook and want to help me.

I had rented condo 6 next door when I first arrived in Akumal and loved my stay there but had to move next door because the owners needed to occupy it during their visit here. So I go up the stairs and knock on their door. Lisa the owner opens the door and cheerfully says, welcome Maha! Come in. Richard, her husband, a retired physician, is just as welcoming. We start connecting and I tell them how I fell in love with Akumal and their condo and the easy lifestyle here. Richard, a very tech savvy person, goes above and beyond, watching youtube videos on how to fix my iPhone problem. Lisa tells me how they also felt called to Akumal and its simplicity. How they were just traveling in the area and stumbled upon this tiny little beach town. They met a lady who owns this private beach and welcomed them in, she told them that condo 6 was up for sale and they bought it on the spot. They knew it was the right thing to do.

Richard, Lisa and I talked about how life is supposed to be easy. That somehow we were brainwashed that life is stressful and meant to be hard. How the energy in Akumal forces you to comply with its mellow rhythm and slow down.

During my stay here for the last 2 weeks, I sensed how potent the energy is. It has not been contaminated with demands of modern day living. Synchronicities occur here on a consistent basis. Every encounter I have is on purpose and I am paying attention and honoring the experience. The people that I meet here, the conversations that I have are not random by any means, they are not for the purpose of “killing time”, which in my opinion is the ultimate sin, since time is the most sacred currency we have.

I am open to the learnings that this inconvenience is presenting to me, and completely conscious and aware of what is unfolding in front of me. If my iPhone broke back in Santa Monica, I would walk 3 blocks to the apple store and have the problem solved in no time. But it broke here, in the middle of nowhere, and that happened by no accident whatsoever, it happened to teach me to reach out and connect with my fellow human. I was forced to take my jaded independent self and rely on others. To see with my own eyes what kindness life has to offer me. To connect with people that in any other circumstances, I would not have. To hear their stories and learn from their journey.

My phone was not repaired, but what happened was even more valuable. I was so fixated on getting my phone to function again, but after my conversation about slowing things down with Richard and Lisa, I realized that it's not the worst thing in the world if I don’t have access to my phone. I still have my laptop. So what If I can’t instantly reach out to my purse and have access to the internet. So what If I have to wait until I go back to my place and use my laptop. Maybe that is exactly what my soul needs right now, to slow down. To be fully present. If I’m out in a restaurant or at the beach, then I should be fully there, not only with my body but with my mind and attention as well. No distractions.

Micheal Singer said in The Untethered Soul “Once we are ready to let go of our stories and our ego, life becomes our friend, our teacher, our sacred lover. When life’s way becomes our way, all the noise stops and there’s a great peace”.

The next time you encounter a challenge or an inconvenience, I invite you to contemplate this question, what is this experience trying to teach me? Instead of resisting or trying to fix the problem right away, can you soften to it, and find the learning that the school of life is trying to teach you?

May you be healthy, may you be happy, may you be at peace...

Maha Bodhi