It was a Thursday night. I had just worked a 12 hour day complete with an hour commute each way.
When I arrived home I peeled off my work clothes and threw everything in the back room to quickly begin my nightly routine. I didn’t know if I was going to make it. I was tired.
It was a mind numbing- go through the motions – while stupid dizzy tired – kind of night. I was literally dizzy with tiredness.
It had been a tough day and tough week in general. One of the roughest weeks I’d had in quite some time.
I just wanted to make it to the end of the day when I could lay in bed, put on my sleep apnea mask and lose myself in blessed sleep.
Fast forward to later in the night. I was getting closer to my goal. My 2 year old son had finally finally finished eating his veggies. It only took him about an hour this time.
The spaghetti left overs were finally hot. I filled up his bowl and began walking to the high chair to give him the final course.
Alas, I could sit down for a few minutes and relax while he enjoyed his spaghetti! The end of the night had almost come.
Then it happened.
I dropped the bowl on the floor and it spilled everywhere. I mean everywhere. I don’t know how I dropped it. I was just that tired.
In frustration, I turned around to put the fork in the sink and missed the sink, striking the fork on the lip of the counter and then dropped that as well. Spaghetti and sauce from the fork splattered on the floor- creating a new secondary mess. There was spaghetti everywhere. My son sat there blankly staring at it for a few seconds before blurting out “What happened daddy?” He then stated with extraordinary passion “Its a mess!” “Its a big, big mess!”
That was it. I almost reached my breaking point! I had zero energy for cleanup. I simply couldn’t do it. Just as the despair began seeping in I took a deep breath and tried to find something positive to focus on. A moment later I realized that I didn’t even have to clean it up.
I called in our two beloved dogs and advised them to have at it. They promptly decimated the spaghetti on the floor and licked up the remains in seconds. The mess was now completely gone. It was as of nothing happened. All I had to do was make another bowl of spaghetti. Crisis averted.
I can’t tell you how much relief it brought me to be rid of yet another task to accomplish before I could finally get in bed and enjoy some sleep. I’d almost let something small with a simple solution take me over the edge- which would have made the night even worse. Instead, I was able to move forward and make it to the end of the night with little additional impact on my overall day.
Many times the answer to life’s problems are simple. Learn to Take a deep breath, focus and look for the solution instead of focusing on the problem. The answer is usually close by.
