In A Hurry

 I don't do well when I am in a hurry.  I have made some terrible mistakes.  I need to remind myself to slow down.  I need to remember that a missed opportunity will probably come again. I need to remember that mistakes made in a hurry just slow everything down. I can think of lots of examples.  Lots of examples.

I was in a hurry to get married.  Not that I was a teenage bride.  I was 25 years old.  I hadn't been in a hurry to get married until a doctor told me that if I ever wanted to have children I needed to have them sooner rather than later.  I wasn't even dating anyone at the time I heard those words.  But a year later I was married. Not that my son was a mistake.  He was born before I was 30 and he was the only baby I could have.  But, the marriage, it was a mistake.  I married someone I didn't know and had nothing in common with. I dated, got engaged and got married in lightning speed.  I paid for that mistake for decades.

On my 50th birthday I was packing for a retreat and I was in a hurry.  In the dark basement I hit a weight bar with my right little toe.  You might say, stubbed my toe, but it was more than that.  It became a neuroma that a foot doctor had to inject with something to deflate it.  I walked in pain for more than 6 months from that hurry, hurry, hurry incident.

I can think of numerous other examples, a back injury because I wouldn't wait for someone to help me lift something, some broken dishes and glasses, spilled things, lost things.  I need to slow down.  I need to stop.

But, the most recent incident has perhaps taught me my lesson in this.  Last week I had a Zoom meeting to get to and I was running late.  I had not eaten dinner.  I grabbed some BBQ pulled pork and threw it into the microwave. I really don't remember how long I cooked it.  When I am in a hurry, paying attention is a problem.  Anyway as I ate it, I noticed that the inside of the serving was still cold. I thought to myself, "I hope this doesn't make me sick."  Well, it did. I suffered for a couple of days from that hurry up incident.

Oh, how I hope that I can learn to slow down and pay attention.  Being in a hurry has hardly ever paid off for me.  I think I will try to give it up for Lent this year.