Reality Check 101

Work was non-stop yesterday, from the moment I walked in the door to the moment I left 50 minutes late. One call after another came flooding in, quote request after quote request turned into an additional 3 pages of "to do" list, contract overhauls filled my lunch hour, client meetings kept me from moving my car so I wouldn't get a ticket (thank God it was raining at the time), vendor dilemmas kept me fielding "Where are my postcards/folders/ads" calls from clients. And that's just the start.

After work was no different. I had plans to make a nice dinner for C-Po, GC, and my friend "Toonces Mama", and was already running an hour behind. I rushed to pick up my sister, shoved a grocery list in her hand, sped to the local Hannaford, went guns blazing through the produce section, searched in vain for coconut milk, finally being forced to succumb to the phone on the end of the "Family Planning" aisle for a little assistance (coconut milk can be found in the Mexican section in case you ever find yourself in a similar rushed predicament) and then raced toward the highway to begin the 25 minute trek home before launching into a vegetable chopping, spice mixing, rice and bean cooking, Caribbean Sweet Potato Gratin preparing frenzy.

Never one to really speed, despite being rushed (I'll just deal with being late... it's a condition far superior to being a smear on the highway) I came up to an intersection at a normal and reasonable speed. The cars were backed up and so instead of stopping next to the Mobil station, I came to a halt next to a funeral home- a very occupied and active funeral home. Streaming out of the doors toward cars parked beyond the parking lot and into the street were red-eyed, black attired folk, family and friends I suppose of some person whose time in this world had come to a close.

As I watched them file out, embracing then separating, and climb slowly into their cars, I understood. Someone was telling me to pause, to see the great blessing I was rushing toward- family, friends, people that I love who are alive and healthy and loving me back. People whose whole lives are before them, however long that ends up being and living in ways that I can only hope to aspire to; days filled with purpose and passion, minds blessed with the desire to be ever improving, souls conscious of the need to love, to pause, to be without fear of falling short in the race toward success.

It was a wonderful reality check. The potatoes might be late, they might not even end up tasting good, but not one of the those people in that room would think a thing less of me. Dinner could wait, it wasn't the point. All that surrounded it, was.

The meal ended up delicious and an hour and a half later than planned, but it was an evening just as it should have been, and I appreciated it from the top of my head to the soles of my feet, in a full-body fashion. I guess that's how joy feels sometimes, full-bodied and peaceful, and brimming with hope.