Here Comes the Flood

Watched an interesting Grey's Anatomy last night. In this episode, a pipe had burst in the hospital and leaks were starting to spring everywhere. The chief of surgery did not want the technicians/plumbers to shut the water off (to quickly fix the break) because he still wanted to be able to perform surgeries rather than send patients to a competitor hospital.

As a result, water started building up and eventually flooded the surgical floor and broke through a ceiling in one of the operating rooms. It was a catastrophe that could have been prevented if the chief had been willing to take the time to address it early on.

How many times do we let this happen in our own lives? We ignore a little problem until it grows to a size that is too overwhelming to deal with. We procrastinate on a project until we have to burn the candle at both ends to get it done. We keep talking the talk about getting healthy and we step on the scale one morning and exclaim, "How did I gain 20 pounds overnight?"

We all have our leaks that are gradually growing into floods. I for one hate that feeling of being so overwhelmed that I don't know where to start! Think about standing in your floodwaters. You'd have to look around and decide quickly what needs to be done first, right?

In my case -- in my "cluttered house" flood -- doing the dishes and the laundry comes first. When I get time, I'll dust and vacuum and somewhere down the list of priorities will come organizing my closet and tackling the cobwebs in the ceiling corners.

In my "I keep trying to lose weight but it keeps finding me" flood, I need to keep taking baby steps. Keep making healthy choices and trying to exercise when I can. I also need to remind myself that I haven't gained a pound in 2008. I haven't lost one, either, but I have stopped the floodwaters from rising anyway.

Every time we address a little leak, we are one step closer to saving our sanity. And hopefully stemming the need to build an ark!