Reading you, loud and clear

Have you ever had those days where you are constantly operating in overdrive, speeding from destination to destination, until the last hours, days, or weeks have gone by in a total blur?

Welcome to my life.

I have been so busy lately. Work has been beyond nuts. I have been traveling all over the state, trying to run two existing programs while getting a third up and running, all while being my own secretary, graduate assistant, filing clerk, answering service, oh, and doing my job. Honestly I can say that I really can't remember what I have done in the past month. It's hard to remember what I did the last hour.

Over the past 24 hours I have had the unfortunate opportunity to be stuck in traffic, backed up for miles, due to what turned out to be some really BAD accidents. Yesterday Morgan and I were 13 miles from home after a very long day. The end was in sight. My mind was already racing past 8:00 figuring what order to attempt to get things done before I fell wearily into bed. All of a sudden we came upon stand still traffic. Knowing that no road construction was going on in that section of road, I surmised that it was due to an accident. No problem, I thought, surely traffic will begin flowing soon. As we sat there I kept telling Morgan what was going on with the trucks and cars in front of me. Then, all of a sudden, I realized there was no traffic coming the other way. That means only one thing.....Life Flight. Sure enough, I glanced up into the sky to see the helicopter making wide circles around the interstate. Our lanes kept creeping up slowly. We came upon the accident scene just as the helicopter (or welly-copter as Morgan said) touched down. The scene was chilling. A minivan with a totally crushed front end and top, five ambulances, and of course, the helicopter. We got to drive right by the helicopter as they were rushing the patient to the craft. Morgan and I said lots of prayers while we sat and drove by. Once we cleared that accident we learned there was another accident less than one mile ahead of this one (turns out there were a total of 3 accidents in the span of about 8 miles). Big rigs were literally parked on the road. Bottom line, it took 45 minutes to go less than two miles. When we finally got home, I couldn't have been happier.

Today work was horrible. Two unscheduled "fires" that needed to be attended to, food not ordered, doctor's appointments that were scheduled with me but were not placed on the doctor's calendar. The final straw for me was spilling about 1/2 of a bottle of water all over my desk. What a mess. My stress level reached a very ugly peak today, and at 4:00 I decided it was time to go home and regroup. Rushing out the door and thinking about what needed to be done at home, I was on my way to get Morgan. On my way to get Morgan, less than 2 miles from the exit, I drove into stop and go, super slow traffice, past yet another horrific accident. Again, the interstate lanes going opposite the direction I was going were completely closed off. Apparently a car from our lanes went across the median, flipped, and landed on a car going in the opposite direction. If yesterday's was bad, this was ten times worse.

It was while I was driving past today's acciddent that I finally got the message. Instead of using lyrics to smack me in the face, God chose a more subtle, but very powerful means of delivery. And that message, you ask. Two simple words.

Slow. Down.

Seems simple right? If these folks had been going slower, perhaps an accident could have been avoided. If I slowed down, perhaps water wouldn't have been spilled all over my desk, or frustrations taken out on support staff, or e-mail messages going unreplied to. I those moments as I inched past the emergency vehicles and people running everywhere, I took a moment to think about those two words.

Slow. Down.

While my work life won't slow down for many weeks, I got the message. Tonight's projects went undone. I spent time eating dinner with my family watching Scooby Doo. I had a tea party with Morgan. I took some time to go shopping by myself. And those projects? Sure, they will be there tomorrow. No the house is not clean like I want it. But if I don't slow down things will go undone, missed, or messed up. The ramifications of not slowing down are huge and the consequences can cost me much more than I am willing to give. I am the only one in control of the speed of life. It's time to give the engine a break and move from fifth to third. Perhaps the Driver of my car will appreciate it if I take some more time to appreciate the surroundings He has provided in my drive of life.

Tonight I hope you can take a few minutes to think about those two powerful words. And if you see me in the next few weeks, you might want to gently remind me of them as well!