Stuff Happens...

I don't deal very well with life when it doesn't go as planned.

The other morning on my way to work I was at a stop sign when the vehicle that was stopped in front of me decided to back up.  Whoa!  Doesn't he know you don't do that????  I hit the horn, but it was too late.  I now have a sad dent in my front fender. 

For some strange reason, I felt the need to second guess myself - why didn't I react quicker?  How could I not have read the other driver's mind?  I should have been prepared for the vehicle in front of me to suddenly back up...

Why can't I accept it for what it was - an unexpected accident?

Last night our dog Ellie woke me up around midnight.  I assumed she either needed her water dish filled or needed to pee.  After deciding Lance wasn't going to take care of her I got up, made sure she had water and let Ellie outside to relieve herself. 

The thing was, her bladder wasn't the problem.  About three am she woke me again, whimpering and shaking in her proverbial boots.  And then I heard it - beep - beep - beep.  The smoke detector battery was going...and it needed to be changed.  Now.  This time I woke Lance up, made some comment about another smoke detector going out, and he took care of the problem beeping by changing the battery. 

I couldn't help but wonder, why didn't we change the batteries last week when I bought all those new nine-volts in anticipation of the inevitable?  We had already changed out dead batteries in two other units just last week.  We should have known this would happen...

Really?  We should have known the battery would need to be changed at three am?  Are we psychic?

Why can't I accept that sometimes the unexpected just happens?

For being such a planner - I have a bad habit of being late.  I think it is because I allowed myself to believe "on time" meant being within ten or fifteen minutes of the planned time unless someone told me differently.  I have really had to concentrate hard on leaving home every morning at an earlier time than I think I need to - just so I won't be late for work. 

Hence, my frustration with the accident - it made me late to work!  And I have been trying so hard to toe the line.

Okay then, what is really my issue with the unexpected?  I am well aware that sometimes stuff just happens - like it or not.  So, what's the problem?

Like many others, I am a bit of a perfectionist and I worry that if I am not in control of my surroundings and the actions of myself and others, I will look bad...to everyone.

Lesson?  I need to remember that my worth is not measured by how well I avoid life's unexpected events, but how I deal with the consequences of those events.

Probably a good lesson for most of us.

Life is messy - whether we like it or not.  I think we all need to learn to deal with the mess not with irritation and anger, but with grace and good humor. 

Stuff happens - get over it.