Mother’s Day weekend was a complete disaster.

At our fine dining restaurant, it started Friday night:

🚑 One employee in a car accident—out for 10 days

🏥 Another rushing to his mother’s side after heatstroke

Saturday:
Everyone who couldn’t get reservations for Mother’s Day came in.
Plus:

🎓 University and high school graduations

👰‍♀️ Bridal showers

🤰 Baby showers

Normally, we had a three-person management team.
But that night:

🚗 My husband was out of town picking up our son from university

🎂 Our manager was at our pastry chef’s wedding

It was just me. 🙋‍♀️

At 6:20 pm, peak dinner rush, the power went out. ⚡

Only for a few minutes—but the computer system took 45 minutes to reboot. 🖥️🌀

🍰Orders were lost
💵Guests were ready to pay and leave
🚶‍♀️New guests with reservations flooded in.

I was circled by servers with problems for me to solve ASAP.

Inside, I was screaming:
"This can’t be happening!" 😱

Outside, I was calm, cool, collected—solving problems one by one. 🧩

How?
I'm not totally sure.

Part Apollo 13:
🚀 "Work the problem, people."

Part martial art training:
🥋Aikido mindset, “Restaurant Randori", handling the most immediate problem while preparing for the next.

And partly I was primed from a recent self-defense conference in Washington DC where I polished:

🧘‍♀️ Conflict communication

🫶 Self-de-escalation

We held it together. 🛡️

🖥️ Before too long, the computers came back up. Order was, and orders were, fully restored.

At that self-defense conference a few weeks earlier, I learned the self-calming technique

📦Box Breathing:
Inhale 4 counts, hold 4 counts, exhale 4 counts, hold 4 counts

This is similar to the Psychological First Aid technique of 4-4-8,
but under pressure it’s easier for me to visualize my breath forming the four sided box.

The North Star doesn’t force the stars to revolve around it.
It simply holds its calm center.

When chaos hits, what anchors you?

~*~

This is one of my Big Ideas posts—where I explore how new ideas, good science, creativity, and bold leadership can help us build a better world.

I believe ADHD leaders have the empathy and creativity to solve the world’s biggest problems, and I want to support as many of them as possible as they step into leadership.