I am seated at Abudhabi this morning. And I am thinking. I was supposed to be seated here a time like this yesterday.

This is what happened. I love last minutes preparations. Most of them have not gone very wrong. Some, even though disatisfying have brought good tidings. This time was different though.

I got into the house, almost one hour late. And my time to catch the flight getting slimmer. I checked the time online, and since everything looked ok I chose to relax. And in the real sense, everything was alright.

Amazing how things we think we have made ready in due time are sometimes what fails us.

I had spotted ‘my’ passport few weeks to my flight.  Because I knew that it was the most important document to allow me to travel.

So yesterday needed no confirmation. I just had to pick it up and sneak it into my bag and go ahead, which I did.

It was not until I got to the security gate at Narita that I discovered that something was terribly wrong. The security guard, after checking the photo in the passport confirmed it was me. But as he was confirming that the photo was me, he agreed but I knew for real that I was in trouble. That photo was not mine!

I tried to think for one minute or two how I would have carried my colleagues passport and left mine. There was absolutely no time to have someone deliver it to me.

I held talks with staff, of course in search of a solution. Finally the only people I could talk to were the ones who sold me the ticket. I first spoke to a Chinese sounding guy, learning from his accent as he spoke in Japanese. I don’t want to go into details of how he was. But in summary, he was pretty much negative in everything, wanting to raise his voice. This I did not want. I want to pay for my mistakes and move on. Get mad at times, just to satisfy me but that is not what occupies me. My target in time like this is looking for a solution. Any word that begins with, ‘there is nothing that can be done,’ has no place for me.

I finally gave up. But the following morning I had to begin from where I left. Since the only thing I knew was ‘Chinese sounding guy’ that is what I used as a pick up line. He was as negative as before. So my first mission was to get rid of him. Thank God I can always use the excuse of language in Japan. I called for a person who can use English.

When he came, everything changed. There is a way kindness touches people and brings them to the point of surrender. He helped me deal with what was apparently pretty much a difficult situation.

It is not so much how a situation is difficult. Nothing in life is is simple. But also, nothing is totally unsolvable. If it can not be solved, we can heal, with time and right people to take us through it. We will be needed to pay for our sin. But the most important thing that we do need is to step out of that particular situation. Anyone who wants to keep you down because of the mess you have done is not a candidate to take with you.

If there is no light at the end of the tunnel, light it by yourself. If you have no lighters, you can turn the most classic means. Pick up something from where you are. Because even though shit real do happens, it does so unhappen too.