Prepared vs. Not

I am of the opinion that Life continues to hand you lessons, until you finally learn them.  I had another learning opportunity with the concept of

Be Prepared

today.  And I failed miserably.  So I'm sure I will have another opportunity to learn and practice this lesson in the future, right?

This was the time on the clock in my car as I pulled into the parking lot for a 7:30 meeting this morning.  My lack of preparation the night before, combined with Murphy's Law, put me one hour and 5 minutes late.  Ouch.

What it should look like

Oh, but I was so prepared before we left on our honeymoon trip to Europe this past summer.  (Sweetie kept me on track.) 

We packed a week before the trip--so we could add things we forgot as the week went along.  The itinerary, with all phone numbers, confirmation numbers, websites, secret-handshakes, etc. was printed out two weeks before the trip.  The dog-sitter was arranged two months ahead of time; the house was scrubbed and the refrigerator emptied out several days in advance.

I felt uncomfortable with everything done ahead of time.  I didn't know what to do with myself!  Shouldn't I have been racing around, doing those last-minute things that always leave me in a tizzy?  Um, nope.  They were all taken care of.  With lots of spare time for things to go wrong.

I had so much free time, that I managed to finish this scarf the day before we left for two weeks in Europe.  How crazy is that?!?!

Ok, so I just need to remember that lesson in preparedness:  if you plan for the worst, then you have lots of time to relax and play when the worst doesn't happen!