Oh, my girls kill me sometimes with what they'll totally ignore, and then what they'll totally freak out over.
They'll tip over a bottle and just leave it there leaking. They'll take shower after shower without telling me they ran out of shampoo weeks ago. They'll tip over a container of slime and just hope I don't notice it slowly oozing down the table and cementing itself to the floor.
Then they see an ant and freak out. Or condensation from my A/C running down the driveway after a brutally hot day, and the sky is falling and they're shrieking at me to come outside and see!
So sometimes it's hard to tell.
It gets me thinking. Sometimes the things we are completely freaking out about are non issues. There are things that I am embarrassed to admit that I invested so much mental energy in. And then there are things that I bury my head in the sand about, either because I don't WANT it to be an issue, or I don't want to deal with the fact that it IS an issue.
I mean, I hate conflict. So I'll ignore a festering problem because the resolution will involve uncomfortable conversations or doing something that I really don't want to do. I pretend the check engine light in my car is not a big deal.
I mean, quite honestly, car problems are my slime running down off the table. Piling paperwork is my empty shampoo bottle. The laundry chair is my leaking bottle.
But rumors at dance are my ant freak outs. A cluttered kitchen counter or family room is my condensation. It incorporates my focus and suddenly all I worry about is what's going on and who I can freak out to.
The solution seems so simple, doesn't it? Whenever I write it out, it's PAINFULLY obvious what I need to do.
Focus on what needs attention.
Let the little things consume less energy.
Crisis averted.