My wife has been hinting that we need a place to hang towels on the porch so that we could do less laundry and properly wipe down the dogs after they’ve gone for a swim.  But as it happens often, I didn’t consciously pick up what she was laying down until yesterday.   For proper context, it was Tuesday.

As you may recall from previous posts, I believe in the power of reflection.  It helps to keep us on the right path, to learn from our mistakes, to better understand how we connect with other people, the world and our purpose, and to continually grow. However, I’m human, and sometimes I get distracted. That’s why every now and then, I force myself to reflect on what I’ve accomplished.

So on Tuesday, I woke up, showered and noticed the towel hook in the bathroom that was falling out of the wall.  The screws had come loose and I’d been meaning to replace it for months.  I had hoped it would last a bit longer, but when I hung my wet towel, the whole thing fell to the floor.  No avoiding it now.

As I mapped out my day, I reflected on that hook, and also the other odd jobs I’d been putting off.  I made a list and realized that my slacking extended across the whole house–a wall that needed to be painted, chairs that needed to be cleaned up, weeds that needed pulling, cleaning the basement, and the need to address the wet towels on the porch.  

As soon as work was over, I headed to the local hardware store to pick-up some hooks and some wood to make something to hang towels from.  Once home, I set about constructing what I decided would be both a shelf and a place to hang towels.  Of course, the screws I chose split the wood and I had to improvise.  A little extra paint fills those cracks nicely. 

Eventually the job was done.  Then the hook in the bathroom. 

It’s funny how something so simple can feel so good.  Truthfully, what felt good was checking off a couple items that had been swirling around the back of my head for so long.  That probably seems odd coming from the person who repeatedly talks about not procrastinating, setting goals, and so on.  But, as I said earlier, I’m human.

My point–life is short.  And once in a while we need to be deliberate about getting stuff done.   As so eloquently stated by Harold Hill from the Music Man, “(If) you pile up enough tomorrows, and you’ll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays.” Ok, that was a little out of context.  But you get the idea.