Lessons from a Pandesal

Life is what we make it. When life hands you lemons, make lemonade - this is so overused because it is so true!

This morning, as I ate breakfast, the yayas and I complained about how the newly-bought pandesal did not seem fresh. Medyo matigas na, parang ininit na lang. We felt cheated and complained for a good number of minutes - mahal na nga, madami naman bumibili, to think na di naman ganun kaaga binili, etc, etc.

Later today, I had this brilliant idea of slicing the pandesal open and placing two generous slices of cheese on half of it. I put it in our old but trusty toaster (I left the pandesal open with the cheeses on top). After 2 minutes, I heard the “ding!” and out came this great-smelling, nearly-burnt, slightly crunchy pandesal. Panalo!

I turned a loser into a winner!

As I ate it with gusto, it dawned on me that we, human beings, can do the same thing with bigger, more important things in our lives. Instead of whining and wasting time on what-could-have-beens (which are always, inevitably, much better than reality), we could choose to take control of the situation and make the best out of it.

Of course, others might say that the best lesson learned here, if any, is to never buy pandesal from the same bakery again. (Smart ass!). But what if options are limited, as the case is here in our neighborhood where only one bakery rules?

Not to self: When the going gets tough, remember lessons learned from the pandesal!