You decide to set your alarm a few minutes later than normal. You get out of bed and now realize there isn’t even time to sit down at the table and eat your breakfast. So you take it to-go. The adrenaline kicks in as you move swiftly to the next stop on your journey of the day.

Your day is jammed with back-to-back meetings and events. By the time lunch hour approaches, you realize you’ll once again be eating another meal in your car. The clock hits 10:14 and you begin to panic when you notice you are supposed to be inside in roughly 30 seconds.

So you park the car, glance down at the backpack and question your intuition on whether or not you should take it inside. You decide it’s safe where it is but cover it with a coat. This alone took the same five seconds it would have to hike that backpack over your shoulders and walk inside.

You get back outside ready to take on the rest of the day. You’re excited for your lunch because you know you packed a good one. The window is rolled down. Or so it seems. The passenger door is unlocked.

I start to think to myself, “could I have really done that?” Of course I didn’t leave the window rolled down and my door unlocked with all my stuff in my car in the middle of Chicago. It wasn’t even warm enough yet for the windows to be rolled down! You know how that Chi town weather gets. Glass shards were scattered over the curb and I knew instantly that I’d be needing some extra layers under my butt so I don’t cut it on a dang piece of glass.

As I took in the situation at hand, I couldn’t believe I didn’t trust myself when my intuition told me to take my backpack inside. “I’ll only be there for an hour. Nothing will happen,” I thought.

Two minutes and a screwdriver was all it took. In broad daylight, some person had the audacity to bust open a window just to heist a backpack. So he instantly acquired a laptop, a tasty lunch and my journal with my most recent daily intentions. To whoever took my backpack, I hope you read that journal and find some inspiration for peace.

It can go two ways. You can choose to get angry or you can choose to send love. So you get angry, you start to attract more difficulties and obsess about finding the thief that threw off your plans for the day. You get frustrated because he has no inconveniences. He’s just moseying around with a nice computer ready to make a deal. You’re day gets worse because you keep sending out negative energy.

Or, you send the love. You ponder what got him to the point of being in such a tough spot in his life. Maybe he’s trying to support a family. Maybe he is attempting to put food on the table for the first time all week. Who knows if that’s the case or if he really just gets riled up about breaking into cars and trying to steal the next best thing? Either way, you realize it is softer to send that love. Hey thief, I know you’re going through a hard time and I forgive you.

Today wasn’t his lesson to be learned.

You begin to feel lighter and realize it was your lesson to learn. A lesson in mindfulness emerges. You realize it becomes necessary to take the time to breathe and slow down. To put on your plate only what you can handle and not over book yourself. But most importantly, to trust your intuition.