But for a moment...

Last night my husband exclaimed with horror that our new papisan chair had developed a large rip. I was once again reminded of the short life of products made today. The $15 minature car track set I bought for my son fell apart the first time we used it. Two of our stuffed animals that come with web codes had parts fall off them within the first few hours of play. My office is cluttered with broken toys waiting to be fixed. Unbeknownst to my kids, most of these toys will soon find their resting place in the garbage dump.
Likewise, I have a short life. Even at age 33 I am beginning to feel the aches and pains. I may live for another 60 years, yet, what is 93 years in the life of the universe? In reality I'm like the kid's meal toy that didn't even last the car ride home from the restaurant. Yet, there is hope. There is permancy, is there not. One greater than the created, the Creator.
Challenge: What permancy are you leaving behind? Are you just like a free kid's meal toy to be disregarded? Or are you leaving your mark?

Mistakes

Today I visited the allergist for my vial test. The procedure is simple. The nurse injects me with a minuscule amount of the serum, waits ten minutes, and measures the reaction. If I did not over react, I receive the allergy shot, wait 15 minutes and leave. However, today I was accidentally given FIVE times the serum that I should have received. A new nurse read my file and gave me .25 ml instead of .05. I could have died from anaphalactic shock from the mistake. The nurse felt terrible. I reassured her that I wasn't upset and in a light, jovial tone stated, "The great thing about making mistakes is that you learn by them. I bet you will never do this again."

Hmm. Wisdom in my own words. How often do I beat myself up over my mistakes. But yet, I don't learn from the mistakes. Perhaps instead of abusing myself, I should stop and reflect on how not to repeat the mistake.

Challenge: What mistakes have you made recently? What can you learn from the mistake(s)?

Time & Patience

Yesterday my 4-year-old was trying to get our dog's attention by "whistling." This means she screamed a high-pitch scream at the same tone as my whistle. The results are not the same. The dog does not recognize it as a whistle. In an effort to teach her to whistle, my husband encouragingly said, "If you keep practicing, you will learn to whistle." She looked up at him with disgust and stated, "I HAVE been practicing....for years!"
"Oh yeah, how many years have you been practicing?"
"Seven!"

Sometimes my sense of time (and my patience) is similar to my daughter's. I get frustrated with events not happening when I want them to. We moved to this state 7.5 years ago, for what we planned to be 2 years. Still, we have no concrete plan for moving. Somedays it seems like we've been here FOREVER! Sometiems I loose patience with a family member and exclaim something like, "You never take out the trash." or "You never do the dishes." or "You never listen to me." Am I serious? Never? Or, like my daughter, does my "never" mean, not in the last 3 weeks or today?

Challenge: How is your behavior like that of a 4-year-old? Is there some area in your life that you need to "just grow up?"

Family Man

Last night we watched Family Man with Nicholas Cage. I am not normally one to contemplate movies. I watch it, think "nice movie" and I'm done. This movie is different. Jack Campbell (Nicholas Cage) is a very successful Wall Street executive who wakes up one morning to a glimpse at what his life could have been had he not taken an internship in London and had he married his college sweetheart. Jack struggles with suddenly being a "family man." He is pulled between the desire for "success" and his family.

I am living the "glimpse" of his life. I made the choice not to go to "London" (Physical Therapy school) and I married my college sweetheart. Like Jack and Kate, our has definitely had disappointments (job losses, health issues, etc). Yet, like them I am content with the love and memories my family provides. I do not need a Wall Street career, or even a professional one. I am a multi-billionaire when it comes to the success of having a wonderful loving husband, two adorable children, and friends and family who love and support me.

Challenge: Are you living the wall street life? Or are you living the glimpse? Like Jack, what is it that you NEED?

Snow

As I gaze through the frosted window at the icy snow covered earth, I ponder my life. The brilliant cleanliness of untouched snow covers all the filth that lies beneath. The filth remains unseen and festering below while the beauty of pristine crystals cause the sunlight to dance. I sometimes feel like snow-covered earth. While on the outside others see me as "beautiful," my thoughts and actions are like the rotting trash in my backyard. A pretty smile and kind words may cover the ugliness inside, but they do not remove it.

Challenge: What is some of the trash in your life that is being covered up? How can it be removed?

Justification, Procrastination, Excuses

So, it's been more than a month since I blogged. So much for my promises that I'd spend 10 minutes a day doing this. I have many excuses as to why I haven't, many being justified. I've procrastinated like crazy on this and so many other things. We all do it, don't we? But I guess the important thing is that I keep trying.

Here' one of my greatest justifications that I came up with though. I've spent the past 4 days working 10-12 hours a day writing a paper. So, by my calculations 10 hours X 4 days X 60 mins/hour = 2400 minutes. That's 240 days of writing, so I've more than covered my sins of the past several months, right?

Justifications don't do much other than make us feel better about ourselves. Sure, I did do a lot of writing, good writing in the last several days. But does it leave my mark? My story?

Challenge: What are you justifying to make yourself feel better?

Barricades and unintended messages

This barricade stood outside of the administration building of the college where I spent a month at the Summer Institute for Intercultural Communication. When I first saw the barricade, I was struck by the irony of it. “American Barricade” is the company name. However, to me it says so much more. I won’t go into all the details of what I thought, but the important thing is the sign communicated to me something that was not intended. This is the complexity of communication. Like the childhood game of Broken Telephone Wire, sometimes the message we are sending is not what is received.

I am also reminded of a former co-worker. She is a lovely, caring lady. Yet, she often comes across as rude. At one time I mentioned to her how her actions in a situation had been perceived and she was astounded. She had no idea of how others saw her.

This former co-worker and the American Barricade make me stop to think. How do others see me? Am I sending a message that I don’t intend to send?

Challenge What might you be communicating to others that you don’t mean to? What is your sign saying?