Sunny Side Up

There is something about traveling that is good for the soul. Especially traveling outside your own country. Or at the very least, outside your comfort zone. It will either make you appreciate everything more. Or it will push you in the opposite direction towards grumpy and complaining.

While I was reading a Rick Steves guide book I ran across this paragraph that made me stop and think a bit further.

Of course, travel, like the world, is a series of hills and valleys. Be fanatically positive and militantly optimistic. If something’s not to your liking, change your liking.

Yes, life is full of hills and valleys. This gave me a small kick in the pants to realize that it is only on vacations that I am much more forgiving in the way things happen. It’s true, if something is not as I like while traveling, I can either dislike it and complain or continue on and be open to changing my preferences. You just never know when you might stumble upon something that was formally a dislike only to discover a new liking.

Everywhere in Paris, eggs are served sunny side up. The horror! My husband loves eggs over easy, the yolk oozing out all over the plate. Oozing egg yolks send a lump to my throat that makes it difficult to swallow. But, I discovered that it is the anticipation of seeing the yolk ooze all over the plate that is worse than the actual taste of the runny eggs. I learned to cover the yolk with ham (everything comes with ham!) or flip the egg over so that I could no longer see the big yellow eye of the egg staring me in the face.

It was a moment of inspiration to see that this loosely relates to how I approach other things in life. So often, I am not “fanatically positive and militantly optimistic”. But, isn’t that a part of what Paul is saying in Philippians 4 when he has learned to be content in every situation? Contentment may come with changing our expectations and looking at a situation from a different angle.

While sunny side up eggs are still not my favorite, I have learned to approach them from a different perspective that will not take away my contentment of enjoying a meal with my husband on vacation in an interesting city. We laughed through the entire meal at my egg dilemma. And now it is a positive memory rather than a negative one.