Angela Mazur
The high cost of mindlessness in the early morning
This past week, I had three unexpected hours of mindful meditation after experiencing a costly moment of mindlessness. All dog details were on me this past week since my husband was away hiking the Appalachian Trail. I barely rolled out of bed at 5:40 am on Tuesday, slipped on a bathing suit coverup, and descended our stairway to let out Oscar, our beloved ten and a half year old golden doodle. As I waited for him to do his “business” outside, I idly scrolled through my facebook feed. Upon hearing his sharp, quick bark to come in, I went out the back garage entrance, closed that door and opened up the rear garage door to let him in. All seemed part of the regular routine until I jiggled the inside handle and to my horror, the door was locked!!!! Darn it, darn it, darn it….. I tried jiggling it more vigorously, as if that would help, before I took a deep breath and decided it was time for Plan B.
Our neighbor has our back-up key but I didn’t think she would appreciate such an early morning rap on her front door. To bide my time, I barefooted it back to our shed and carefully pulled out my zero balancing chaise lounger. After some finagling, I managed to set it up inside the garage with the back door open so Oscar knew I was there. From this vantage point, I could follow the flight of the early morning birds, watch the leaves sway back and forth and take it the dawning of this new day. Instead of berating myself, I had some good chuckles about my predicament and at the same time appreciation that it wasn’t in the dead of winter.
All ended well when I knocked on my neighbor’s door at a reasonable hour of 8:30 am. She was horrified I waited three hours to ask for her help. She assured me that if that ever happens again, I can come over right away. Let me tell you, I hope this doesn’t happen again any time soon. I did enjoy stretching out on this chair that mostly gets stored in the shed and being able to watch the day dawn…. Are there silver linings in things that are difficult for you?