Waiting

My outdoor thermometer says that it is 80 degrees.  It certainly feels like it.  A little over a week ago we had two inches of snow in my neighborhood.  Such is life in Kentucky.

It’s been sunny and warm all day.  My first impulse after having my morning coffee was to go to the park.  Before I got out of the house I remembered the Orkin guy was coming for my bi-monthly pest treatment.  A few years ago my wife saw a mouse in the house so I was given two options.  We either get Orkin service or put the house up for sale.  I went for the Orkin treatment.  I have not seen a mouse since but I am still here.  Apparently it doesn’t work on all pests.  

I am still waiting for my guy to show up.  In his defense I was told he wouldn’t be here until the late afternoon.  However, if I had gone to the park he would have called me while I was walking and told me he was on the way and would be here in five minutes.

I have been a little productive today with minor chores.  The microwave, downstairs bathroom, and upstairs bathtub are now clean or at least cleaner than they were yesterday.

Knowing that my Orkin guy was coming today made me feel like a hostage.  If he wasn’t coming my day may have gone down exactly as it has anyway but I would have had the option to do something else if I had chosen.  Yes, I know it’s a small thing but life is made up of small things, some of which make you crazy.

I am usually a very patient man and very good at waiting.  As a long time married man I have spent much of my life waiting for my wife to do whatever she is doing.  I have spent years on Mall benches or waiting in my car while she runs an errand.  Sometimes I even enjoy waiting.  I love to watch people and to turn up the volume on my music while my wife accomplishes her chores.  However, sometimes I am also very impatient and I suffer from the disease of “get out of the way and let me do it”.  This is a disease very prevalent in perfectionists.  The only cure is to learn how to “let it go”.  This has gotten somewhat easier as I have gotten older.  By the time you are 70 you have hopefully learned that most things are not that big of a deal.  I hate it when I get upset and start flailing.  I know how to breathe but my timing is sometimes off.  

All of our lives would be better and certainly more peaceful if we just learned to stop, breathe, and let it go.  We need to relax.  It’s not always what happens to us and around us.  It’s how we react to it.