How many times have I thought those words to my regret!
It started for me many years ago. In the early days after buying this big house, I put water on the stove for tea while I went downstairs to fetch something. But somehow I got distracted with something there that needed doing. When I returned upstairs, the water had boiled away and the bottom of the metal pot had melted all over the stove. Still not learning the lesson to NEVER leave the room when something is on the stove, I have gone on to burn several meals since although I never again melted another pot. However, my son tells me my late mother melted one or two pots on the stove as well.
Anyway, yesterday, it was my worker. He removed the chain around the boards on the front wooden gate. It was there to prevent my big Maremma sheep dogs from escaping should they open the latch — a new trick that their mother had just taught them a few days before. “I’ll only be a moment,” he thought as he walked across the driveway to get feed for the farm animals in the garage. So he did not take the mere second of extra time to replace the chain. Quickly, my two big Maremma pups unseen to him, unlatched the gate and took off, and were out of sight by the time he filled up the feed buckets and came back. As a result, I spent an hour and a quarter driving around a 3 mile radius calling for them before I finally found them and got them home. But the results could have been different as these dogs are unfamiliar with trains, traffic, or the acres of woods around. And people do steal valuable, pure breed animals.
How quickly taking a moment to do something or not do something by ignoring or discounting potential negative consequences can have unpleasant or painful results. Whether you get distracted and lose your focus, take your eyes off what you are doing, or turn your back on someone or something, it can bring enormous stress, aggravation, money, and time consuming extra work. It can mean the difference between getting on the plane or not, between owning something, or it being stolen or lost forever. But sometimes the results are even tragic – leaving a child or animal in the car on a hot summer day, for example. A moment can mean the difference between between health and injury, life and death.
Many years ago, I combined walking my dog with going to the grocery store to buy just a few items. I tied him up outside and went in to do my shopping. When done, I found that someone had stolen my dog. Signs and calling throughout the Boston neighborhood brought no response. Only through great good fortune and timing a couple of weeks later did I happen to again be walking the same route and saw some young people sitting with my dog on the stoop of their apartment building across the wide boulevard. I was lucky to get him back.
Another time, I drove to the train station to pick up my husband. I left the windows open because my teenage son was in the back seat. As the train was late, I got out to wait for my husband on the track. It took just a moment of me being gone for a man to jump into the driver’s seat to try to steal the car. Only my son thinking to hold up his boy scout knife as he addressed the thief made the man flee, and kept my son safe.
Every day we have to make countless quick decisions to do or not do this or that and how or what instead. Nonetheless, there also has to be awareness of potential negative consequences of those decisions and not discount the downside because “it’ll only take a moment!”
Copyright 9/2018 by Roxanne Louise. However, this article may be shared in free online sources only if this copyright notice and link to http://www.roxannelouise.com and http://unlimitedpotentialhealingcenter.com are included with the content.
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