San Francisco, California
It has been a trying week. Why is it that life always comes and kicks you in the teeth just when you are really busy and don’t have time to deal with any additional hassles?
Admittedly, my troubles were largely self-inflicted. Last Saturday, distracted by thoughts and plans, I left my bag at the gym. I got halfway home before I realised. I started to do a u-turn to head back to the gym and found myself and Mojo in the path of an oncoming truck. Bang.
This was not good.
There then followed a period of acute stress and sleepless nights while I agonised over the situation. A black cloud of anxiety hovered over me. I felt absolutely dreadful, ashamed and embarrassed about damaging Robert’s car. After all his kindness to me, what kind of thanks was this? Initially I hoped to get the damage fixed out of my own pocket without troubling him, but eventually decided that honesty was the best policy. If the incident came to light in the future, best that the news came from me, and sooner rather than later.
It was not an easy phone call to make, but he took it incredibly well, all things considered, with only a very restrained rebuke: ‘You know, Roz, you really need to be extra, extra careful when you are using other people’s things.’ I know, I know, I know. Mea culpa.
Fortunately the matter seems to be coming under control now. AAA insurance are dealing with it, and Mojo is in the capable hands of the best-reputed Mini repair specialists in the Bay Area. Gradually the black cloud is lifting.
And I figured out why life always comes and kicks me when I least need it. It’s because my brain is so busy buzzing with future plans that it forgets to concentrate on what it’s supposed to be doing in the present. That’s when I lose things, forget things, or crash things.
So my renewed resolution is to keep my mind on the present, as opposed to being absent(-minded).
[Photo: hard to spot the damage to the bonnet (hood) and bumper, but this is going to cost $4000 to repair. Ouch.]