Yesterday I returned from a conference and found myself stranded at the airport.
By Abi Harmon · October 16, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog
Yesterday I returned from a conference and found myself stranded at the airport.
Stranded might be a bit dramatic. Five minutes later, I walked myself to the Uber stand and headed home.
My partner was supposed to pick me up. He had fallen asleep.
At 7:00 pm. 😂
I spent the first half of the car ride angry. Finger-pointing, building my case, telling myself all sorts of stories about what this meant.
And then I took a beat.
Something I’ve been working on lately is not allowing everything happening in my external world to dictate my internal one.
So I got curious about why I was so upset.
I was disappointed.
I’d been looking forward to seeing a friendly face at the airport. A wagging tail in the back seat. Holding hands on the drive home. That simple joy of being picked up by someone you love.
And I’ve been lucky enough to experience that so many times.
Then I thought about why my partner might have fallen asleep at 7:00 pm.
The late nights. The pressure of juggling multiple complex jobs. The urgency of the massive renovation we’ve just embarked on.
And how grateful I was that I could leave for a few days, go to a conference, and know that our home, our animals, and everything else were being taken care of.
By the time I got home, the story had changed.
The circumstances hadn’t. He still fell asleep. I still took an Uber.
But I wasn’t angry anymore.
This is the practice.
It’s not about stilling the mind, feeling zen, or pretending you’re not upset.
It’s noticing what triggered you.
Catching the story your brain immediately starts writing.
Allowing yourself to feel the emotion without handing it the steering wheel.
And getting curious about whether another interpretation might also be true.
This is so much of what I teach in coaching, retreats, and corporate workshops.
Self-awareness is a skill. And the more we practice it, the more choice we have in how we respond to the world around us.
Sometimes that practice happens in meditation.
Sometimes it happens in the back of an Uber, halfway home from the airport. 💗