My office was closed this past week, and I decided to take advantage of the vacation time and take a road trip to visit my "sister" in Ohio. My little niece is six months old and I wanted to see her while she was still an adorable, babbling baby. Not that she won't always be adorable, but those baby days are so short lived. Jess and I had a lot of fun hanging out and of course, Ani was a delight to play with. Her little chubby cheeks, strawberry blond wisps of untamed hair, blue/gray eyes like her momma, and jovial little attitude were a joy to experience. But all good things must come to an end, so my day today was spent driving the long nine hours home.
While driving, I crossed many, many bridges and over passes and realized a few things while driving south. The caution signs on bridges up north, are very different from the ones in the south. At home, our caution signs say, "Bridge MAY ice in winter". A bit farther north in the Kentucky/Virginia area, you begin to see signs that say, "Bridge ices before road". And of course, when you get up north the signs say, "Watch for ice on bridge".
To me, there's a 'lesson' to be observed. Different times or aspects in our life call for varying levels of attention. There are some things that don't happen often or are that important. They should only garner our attention when it "MAY" ice. It's not that we forget them entirely, but they shouldn't be at the forefront of our minds. Then there are the things that are a bit more important, and show up more often. Therefore, we should know roughly when they are occurring and pay attention to them at that point. And finally of course, there are the things that should have our constant attention. They WILL cause problems if not treated with great care and concern.
So my thoughts and challenge for 2012? Well it is to figure out where the things/events/people/projects, etc. in my life fall in regards to these three categories and to treat them with the level of observation they each require.
