I wrote a few blog posts ago about “letting go” of our beloved little blue car. It was the right thing to do. It was time. I am now driving our other old car (the one which hubby used to drive all the time) whenever I need to go somewhere.
This morning I was headed to a dentist appointment.
As I tootled along to the dentist apt., I became aware of a distinct, noisy rattle. Our car is 22 years old, so there are lots of rattles. This rattle, though, was particularly obnoxious. I began to smack at the dashboard and the center console, trying to make the rattle stop. It didn’t work.
I just have to say, it’s rather difficult to focus on where you are going and pay attention to your driving when you are so busy smacking at the dashboard! And smacking at the center console!
I couldn’t help but think how in life there are things which “rattle” us (just like this obnoxious noisy rattle). These things are irksome! They are obnoxious! They drive us crazy. Maybe it’s something obnoxious our kids do. Maybe it’s something irksome our spouse does. Maybe it’s our coworkers who are driving us crazy.
And just like I began to smack at dashboard and center console trying to get the rattle to stop … so also in life, we start to “smack” at the “rattles” which are driving us crazy.
Our coworkers “rattle” us … and we respond with a “smack”!
Our spouse does that irksome thing … and we respond with a “smack”!
The Amazon delivery driver doesn’t put our package exactly where we want him to … and we respond with a “smack”! No joke, yesterday my daughter texted me that while she was sitting out on her back patio, the lady on the upper floor, directly across from her was chewing out a poor delivery driver because he didn’t put her package exactly where she expected him to. Poor delivery dude. That right there was a “smack”!
It’s really hard to focus on where we need to go in life when we are so busy “smacking” at everything in our life that “rattles” us.
It’s hard to pay attention to how we are “driving” in our life (aka: how we are parenting; how we are being as a spouse; how we are being as a decent human being) when we are so busy “smacking” at everything.
And not only that … when we “smack” at “rattles” (like the lady “smacking” at the poor delivery dude) we risk causing them to “run off the road of life.” That lady’s “smack” probably really discouraged the poor delivery dude. That “smack” might have caused him to lose his own focus in life.
If we allow ourselves be distracted by the “rattles” in life which annoy us, we’ll eventually “run off the road” because we’ve been so busy “smacking” at things! Or worse, we might cause someone else to “run off the road.”
