Finding Wisdom In the Strangest Places

I was driving home from my hair appointment yesterday when the car in front of me caught my eye. No, it didn’t have an interesting license plate. It had several bumper stickers that looked quite worse for the wear. The middle one read, “Don’t postpone joy.” Obviously it struck a cord because I am still thinking about it.

Yesterday was one of those crazy days just before you leave town. Since I was heading off to California for the Professional BusinessWomen of California conference today, I wanted to look good. That meant hair, toes (though noone will see my little piggies), and nails had to be done. There was a birthday lunch with Mary Lou that would never have enough time in it, there was a Weight Watchers meeting, packing for the trip and there was making sure my car was ready to be shipped to Arizona. A lot to get done before dinner. I had so wanted the packing of all sorts to be finished over the weekend, but there were the usual glitches along the way.

And then I saw the bumper sticker. All the way home I was thinking how I could bring joy into my life amid all yesterday’s busy-ness. When I focused on that rather than how rushed I was it was easy to figure out. I took the Weight Watchers meeting off the table. I decided not to run and buy different yarn for my granddaughter’s scarf -- it could wait. I decided to savor every ounce of delight from lunch with Mary Lou (no problem there). I decided to just give myself over to the delicious pleasure of my pedicure. Yum!

Was I less stressed at bedtime when I couldn’t find the cash I knew I had just put in my pocket? No, I was still around the bend, but I had also experienced joy several times during the day. I didn’t put it off for a calmer time in the future.

I am so glad that car was in front of me.