Waiting

I'm sitting here waiting. And it's not good. Because the thing I am waiting for is the biggest, baddest winter storm to hit our area in several years. At least that is what all of the local weather people have been telling us. And now it's on our threshold! We're told to expect freezing rain, icy roads (that already happened earlier this week), high winds, high snow levels, and for me, high anxiety!

I'm not exaggerating when I say that if I have one phobia, it is snowy, wintery weather. Everyone who knows me knows that. It's embarrassing to admit that I spend hours...okay, days...stressing over having to drive in the snow, or worrying about everyone else that I love driving in the snow. And just when I think I am making a bit of progress about taking it all one day at a time, we get slammed with a snow storm that sentenced me to a four-and-a-half hour bus ride home from work in freezing temperatures.

Sometimes I try to remember if I ever liked the snow. I think I did as a child when it meant snow days from school and building snowmen with my sisters outside. But once I had to drive in it in order to get to work, the magic was gone. And it ain't coming back!

So, here I sit. Waiting. Maybe the snow will stop soon. Maybe the winds will miss us and we won't lose power. Maybe an unexpected heat wave will hit us before Monday when I again have to make the decision about whether I'm going to brave the ice and snow in order to drive to work. Or maybe, I can hide under my covers until May. I'm okay with that!

Blind Spots

So I wrote my first blog yesterday! Before I published it, I read and re-read it looking for typos. I didn't find any so I published! Then after reading it in its published form, what should I see but two mistakes that I had missed on my previous readings. How could this be? I was so careful! But there they were, staring me in the face. I guess that I was just so familiar with what I was trying to write that I was blind to the mistakes I had made. (I've since figured out how to go back and edit so hopefully there aren't any more mistakes!)

This got me thinking about a class that two of my co-workers attended last week. The class was about influencing people. One of their exercises involved having someone who knew them well tell them what one of their "blind spots" was. The very fact that it was called a "blind spot" implies that the individual was not aware of it. The instructor stressed the idea that sometimes we behave a certain way and other people assume that we know we are behaving that way. However, the reality is often just the opposite...we don't have a clue that we are acting like that.

If I have a "blind spot" that is enabling me to behave in a way that impacts others negatively, I think that I want to know that. I say that "I think that I want to know that" because I honestly don't know if I do. I suspect that if I'm honest with myself, I sometimes prefer to be allowed to do whatever I want to do regardless of anyone else. It's a sad thing to admit. And I hope that it doesn't happen too often.

In the end, I want to be willing to allow those that I love to point out the blind spots or "typos" in my life... those places that are so familiar I don't see them. And I especially want to allow God to correct them if it will result in a better end product... a better me.