A Little Lost Light Finally Gets to Go Home

I am a champion procrastinator. I know I'm not the only one out there; it's a common enough affliction. It meant that as a student I did everything last minute-- in high school, I barely learned anything in seminary because I spent most of that unholy early hour frantically trying to finish up assignments that were due that day. Or cramming for a test.

In college I had my first breakthrough. Granted, it took me until my very last semester, but I eventually figured out that it made my life much less stressful if I worked on my assignments before the last minute. However, that didn't translate to the rest of my life. I could procrastinate everything else, especially anything that included picking up after myself.

As a mother the procrastination entered the big leagues. Even if you're not a procrastinator by nature, it's kind of forced on you. Since there's never enough time to do everything, you always have to decide to put something off. The danger is in putting off stuff forever, or putting off the stuff that should come first. Procrastinating can have much more serious consequences when you're a mom. I learned this the hard way. I procrastinated finding a new dentist for the kids when we moved down here, and by the time I got M in, her teeth had gotten so bad that she needed 8 crowns.

Yikes. Needless to say, all the kids are now on a very regular six month visit schedule. (Of course, I've still procrastinated getting Terence and I a new dentist, so we haven't been in four years. At this point I don't even want to know....)

But some of the stuff I still procrastinate about is downright silly. Haircuts- I only get around to cutting my hair about once a year. Washing the car- happens only when it is so filthy you can't really tell it's a silver van anymore. Taking care of the backyard weeds/grass/trees, etc.- hmmm, I don't think I've done anything out there in nine months.

On my kitchen counter there is a a little basket that I keep non-refrigerated fruit in, like bananas or oranges. Way, way back (at least a year, probably) one of the kids brought in one of the little solar landscaping lights we have lining the front walk and put it on the counter. Just to get it out of my way, I tossed it in that basket. And then never got around to taking it out and putting it back in the front yard.

So even though my fruit has rotated in and out of that basket a gazillion times since then, I'd gotten to the point where I really didn't even see that dusty solar light sitting in the basket. But this morning, as I tackled the huge pile of dishes I had from yesterday's mammoth hot wings cooking adventure, it finally caught my notice again. Once more I was tempted to just leave it there. What the heck, it's not hurting anything. However, with a Herculean amount of willpower, I actually chose to pick it up out of the basket, walk it out to the front yard, and pop it back on its stem. Took me all of 45 seconds.

Why didn't I do that sooner??? I wonder what else I'm putting off I could just take care of in less than a minute.