I have a tendency to panic. Not about babies crying, or a boatload of laundry. I have managed those troubles enough times to know that life will resume. But when my phone revolts, or the GPS in the car blitzes out, I get scared. 

 

The other day, I woke up and my phone was black and white. Like Kansas in The Wizard of Oz. My flight response sprung into action. All the techie people were still asleep, so I pulled up my bootstraps and googled it. There was actually a string of answers to the dilemma, which in itself was calming. I restarted the phone, and blew gently into the port. Still gray. I squeezed the sides of the phone, and explored the Settings app for anything resembling the restoration of color. 

 

Just then, one of the smart people who live here came downstairs and I blurted out my problem. 

 

"Did you restart it?" 

 

"Yes," I was proud to say.  He, too, went to Settings, and fiddled for maybe twenty seconds before my screen was again in full color. I left Kansas. 

 

It occurs to me that some people's livelihoods rely on problems. In fact, they would be out of a job without them. Plumbers, come to mind, and gastroenterologists for another. Mediators, umpires, and ministers would all be at loose ends without the difficulties they are trained to address. 

 

Maybe I could calm down a notch. Adding my anxiety to the conundrum does little to empower me, anyway. 

 

I happened upon a short video about penguins. Those flightless birds who face daunting elements in their journey to find fish, survive the cold, and protect a chick. The narrator described how they needed to ascend a 300 foot cliff, in order to mate. It looked, well, ominous. 

 

But I noticed no accompanying distress. They just worked the problem. 

 

Maybe I could try that.