The Burnt Toast Theory

Have you been delayed to your work, missed your regular train, or bus, just because you burnt your toast today?

I am sure if not a burnt toast, then spilled coffee, your dog needed that extra pampering before you left for work, your daughter remembered the craft items she wanted just before you dropped her to school and left for job, your shirt button broke just when you are all set to leave for work…and possibly a 100 other things that must have delayed you to work, or on the way to do something important.

Wondering why I ask this?

Trust me, it was not meant to be. Trust me, it was not the right time. Trust me, you were not supposed to be where you were meant to be.

It’s all a game the universe is conspiring.

Burnt Toast Theory was a term coined during the 11th of Sept 2001 attacks in the US (As I read back then). There was this man who worked in the World Trade Centre, and on the fateful morning, he got delayed because he burnt his toast and had to make a new one. In this chronicle he missed his regular transport to work and was delayed only to be a witness to the horrendous attacks and the fall of the World Trade Centre building in which he was supposed to be. But he was not. He was delayed by a good 20 minutes that day because of his burnt toast. In retrospect he realized that the burnt toast saved his life that day.

These setbacks in hindsight might be uncomfortable, frustrating and would make you restless because you are either missing a deadline, breaking a regular time discipline, taking a different way at work to save time, or doing things that you do not, or might not do regularly.

The result is obviously you thinking beyond your regular routine, How can I manage this delay? What different can I do? What are the consequences of it?

Rarely do you think, What good happened out of it?

Trust me, whenever I was delayed or stuck due to some unavoidable reason, I have received something worthwhile. But that does not mean I break my discipline of being on time.

I extend this theory to the one thing my Mom has taught me since I was a child, “Everything you want in life will come to you at the right time,” and I believe in it totally.

Sometimes you have to let things be as they are. Sometimes you have to relax and watch how life unfolds, and sometimes you just have to let go things you cannot hold on to for long.

There is this poem very close to my heart –

Serene, I fold my hands and wait,

Nor care for the wind, nor tide, nor sea;

I rave no more against the time and fate,

For lo, my own shall come to me!

-????????? John Burroughs