TGIF.
Today continues the weekly series, F*ing Fridays, which will coincidentally occur on Friday. I mentioned some of my favorite F words back on Day 5, including: Fearless, Fabulous, Fine, Fun, Faith, Freedom, Forgiveness, to name a Few.
Last week I dove into the word Forget.
Today’s F*ing Friday is dedicated to the word:
Flood.
As in, water works.
This morning I woke up at approximately 6:10 AM. With one eye open I practically sauntered in a sleep walk to the bathroom trying not to hit the foreign walls or doors in my hotel room. If I were in my own bed I could have navigated the path to the bathroom with my eyes closed, but I was not on my home turf.
After using the toilet and scurrying back into my bed to get one more snooze of sleep I heard it, getting louder with each beat.
Drip.
Drip.
Drip.
There I lay half asleep, snuggled in my big fluffy white hotel bed and blankets, when I looked over at Debbie Phillips snuggled in her bed and blankets across the room from me and I announced:
“I must have left the water on in the bathroom.”
Debbie knew better and hopped up to investigate (maybe it was because she was at one time in her life an investigative journalist, but I would like to think this was because she was actually coherent and awake and I was not) .
She was right.
The drip in the bathroom wasn’t coming from a faucet, it was coming from the ceiling. Soon enough, just after a few little drips, running through the light fixture in the middle of the bathroom, a waterfall was forming.
Before we knew it, and before we could get security up to our room to investigate we had what seemed like a flash flood on our hands. We scrambled to grab items out of the bathroom and pack up our bags.
The hotel staff were great about moving us to another room in no time at all. Debbie, after all, had a speech that morning and we were now running behind schedule.
Still in my pajamas, with no shoes or bra on my body, I rolled my suitcases down the hall to another room.
Just as Debbie closed the door to our old water laden room, she pointed down at the floor and said, “Jamie, look at this!”
There on the carpet, staring up at us was a newspaper:
The standard, hotel issued, daily USA TODAY front page headline read:
“The great flood of 2011″
Now, our flood was not great. It wasn’t really a flood. It was a minuscule setback in the scheme of things. Especially in the face of what this article describes of the affected Mid-West.
But, in my mind it underlined a point.
How water works.
With it.
Without it.
Too much, there is ruin.
Too little, there is drought.
It is a delicate balance.
And “balance” ~ the big “B” word. Now, that is something I am constantly reminded of, this year of investing in my head, heart, body and soul.
The balance of it all.
Not too little, not too much, just right.
It’s a delicate relationship, this balance thing.
And, sometimes, the best I can do, is just reminding myself to drink more water.
