Today was one of those days when I was rushing around to get my mother ready to go to the Alzheimer’s Daycare Center so I could go to teach a class on Customer Service for one of my corporate clients and on the way I was listening to a CD from Pema Chodron about Tonglen and Lojong and how important it is to be aware of the good, the bad, and the ugly in my life without holding on to any of it.
When I got home there was a notice in my e-mail box that I had overdrawn my checking account! I spent the next hour trying to figure out how and what that unknown charge for $140 was on my account. I can tell you that I was aware of the bad and the ugly on my way to the bank, as I sat waiting to talk to someone at the bank, and after I was told that the $140 was for NSF fees! I had by mistake written a check on my account that should have been written on my mother’s account for her fee to go to the daycare center and that bounced three other (easily covered debits) that came through at the same time. Yikees! But as I drove away from the bank, able to cover the charges from another account I had at that bank I wondered how would a poor person do it? I was lucky to have the money to cover everything.
As I spoke with the bank representative compassion welled up in me as I heard her sadly and sincerely say that she could not reverse even one of the $35 charges because of the new bank policy. She shared with me that she is even embarrassed to admit that she works in a bank today when years ago she would have been proud to say she was a banker. I am proud to be a teacher, trainer, and blogger and so my heart went out to her as well. As I got into my car all I could think of was Pema Chodron and “just this.” No more–no less, just this.