Poor Man's Time Travel

I have just finished a delicious sandwich and begun to reminisce. When I first moved to Columbus in the fall of 2003 I didn't have a job, money, local friends, phone, or food. The food part was the hardest. Once school started, I was able to go to every student activity where they had food to eat, but I got here three weeks before classes began.

I found that there were a lot of fruit trees in my neighborhood. So many, that I was able to pick enough pears and apples (3 varieties!) to stretch what little I had so I wasn't too hungry. I know it sounds crazy but it was better than shoplifting or panhandling to me. My point is that though at the time I was distressed about finding a job and where my next meal would come from, now I look back on it almost fondly. Finding different ways to cook fruit so that I didn't get sick of it seems almost like a minor problem preferable to lots of others.

I suspect my future self will remember my life at this time similarly. I have often consoled myself with this thought in one way or another; when enduring any difficulty I envision myself at some future comfortable time remembering having *this* very thought. And it always happens (until I die) that such a time rolls around and I think 'Wow. Here I am. Just like I imagined.' Call it a poor man's time-travel.

"And this too shall pass" is a phrase I've always enjoyed because it contains the above long-winded thought concisely and its converse. Pleasant things pass away just as inevitably. So I have taken to reminding myself of this often. It helps me to put things in a suitable perspective.