keeping it in line

During the busyness of the holidays and my previous “working” life, I got a little sloppy.

There were so many “must dos” that had to be done that there was little to no time to tackle the “should dos”. The “shoulds” were put on a shelf in plain view. A reminder of things I needed to do (and to be blatantly honest, some of the “musts” were put on there too). I would often come home at the end of the day and look up at the “shoulds” up on the shelf and have little or no desire to tackle them.

One of these “shoulds” was to return the call to my long time friend. She and I have been friends from the 6th grade. Together, we fought our way through Middle School, survived High School, and celebrated College. We were there for first apartments, first boyfriends, weddings, children, and life. When I moved up to the snowy tundra of Wisconsin, it moved our relationship into the long distance category, but we still made it work.

My friend called during Christmas break and as I was struggling to keep my head above water, I just couldn’t find the right time to call her and catch up. I would think of this “should” often as I looked at the phone and then went through all of the other things that I “must” do – and the “musts” always would win. I kept telling myself that I would get to it and planned that once my employment had ended, I would make the time to call her back.

She, however, beat me to the punch by leaving me this message on my machine last week.

Hi Spie. It’s friend. I just returned home from an 8 day hospital stay. Call me when you get a chance.

Needless to say, whatever “must” I planned do to at that moment (which was feed my children lunch) was put on hold as I immediately returned her phone call. (Fortunately for my hungry children, Mr. Spie was home for lunch too and fed the ravenous brood)

My friend, it turns out, was life threatening ill. Those 8 days? More than half were spent in ICU.

Guilt has quite a hearty punch.

Thankfully, she is fine now. Recovering at home and counting her blessings.

Me? I am making a conscious effort to remember to keep mine where they belong….. at the forefront of the line.