Monday, September 15, 2008

If this was a test, I may have failed.

Today as I rushed to get David to his nursery school at the church in enough time to actually be on time to my half-shift at the ED, I may have messed up.
As I entered the church courtyard I noticed a nicely-dressed lady sitting on a bench beneath a tree adjacent to the sanctuary wall. I glanced her way as I passed by with David on my hip- and noticed she was (softly) crying. Upon entering the church, I mentioned the crying lady to the receptionist/greeter that is stationed at a desk in the Lilycrop room (the room you first enter upon going into the church), told her what I'd seen and asked if she knew who the lady was. She went toward the door, so I took David to his baby room.
On my way out, I asked the greeter-lady if the crying-lady was alright. She told me she hadn't recognized her from the back and didn't want to intrude and so hadn't actually gone outside to talk to her... and when I went outside to check on her, she was gone.
My thought-process at the time of first noticing her was that perhaps she had just been inside the church, maybe talking with the priest or somesuch about something sad, and had to collect herself before she left. However, I'm really wishing that I'd stopped to ask her if I could help on my way into the church rather than trying to figure out what was going on first before approaching her. And now I'll never know if she just needed a moment to herself, or needed help.
What if this was God testing me?
I think I need to slow down. In all aspects of my life. I seem to rush around a lot. I rush to work, rush to try and see as many patients as I can during the shift, and then rush to get home to David, Magnolia & Chris. I rush through housework trying to get as much in as I can before David to begins to fuss or Magnolia needs help with something. I can't seem to focus on one activity for more than a bit before I'm thinking of something else that I need to be doing. Is this just part of life with more than one child, or pathology?
I've started swimming laps again some mornings (the Florida Gym pool is finally refurbished- and open from 7-8am!). That helps deflect some of my rush-rush mentality. Usually, except when I realized last Thursday that I'd completely spaced David's 6 month check-up until I was already 15 minutes late for it and on my way to take Nolia to school- so we made a protracted detour to Dr. Grooms' office (thank you, Dr. Grooms!- she was very understanding and squeezed us in). After that, all positive effects of the morning swim were swept away in another bout of rushing around.

1 comment:

The Tomlinson Family said...

I am always having situations like that where I don't think of the right response until it's too late. I always think after something like that happens that the next time I'll be ready. And sometimes it is true.

Thanks for the encouragement you left on my blog.