We all like to have things happen on our own schedule.  We want this now, the other thing tomorrow, and the thing after that next week.

Unfortunately, life has its own pace, and it doesn’t always match our own.  Sometimes things happen faster than you’d like, and sometimes you are forced to slow down.

In the last two weeks or so, I’ve gotten a sample of the second type of scheduling conflict.  Life decided that I needed to slow down, and as always happens when your schedule is in conflict with life’s schedule, life won out.

In my case, I got some enforced time off when a pipe in my home completely broke, flooding the downstairs bathroom and hallway.  We hoped to put in a temporary patch to let it hold until after the holidays, but the break was in a bad place, and it was impossible to patch it.

That means is had to be completely re-piped… all the incoming water plumbing had to be replaced (at least it’s copper now).  That meant that I had to take the time off work to be there while the plumbers were working, as I’m not willing to allow strangers into my home without my presence.  At the same time, I couldn’t really do much of the stuff I would normally do when taking time off of work.

So, as mentioned earlier, I got to slow down.  Any of you who have been subscribers for some time will notice that I suddenly stopped posting new articles… I don’t have a laptop, and my computers at home are near one of the main places the plumbers were working, plus all kinds of things had to suddenly be moved out of their normal spots, blocking much access to a lot of my home.

So I sat back and took the time away from the computer… I’ve barely looked at a computer for two weeks now (though I did play video games on my PS2… my son got Guitar Hero III for Christmas, and I’ve been playing too!).  I read a new book, which was actually good enough that I’m likely to do something I’ve never done on this site before and post a review of it (and no, I’m not getting paid to do so, for any who are curious).

I spent more time with my wife and kids (some of which included playing video games with my son), which is a practice I mean to keep up.  I thought about what I really want to do, and how I want to do it.  That also is a practice I mean to keep up.

In other words, life grabbed me by the collar and sat me down to have a little talk about how I was letting the important things get lost amongst all the day to day junk.  I am grateful that it did so, as I wasn’t paying enough attention to the little reminders that I was starting to let my priorities slip.   Even the most aware people (not that I’m claiming that status for myself) stumble sometimes, and sometimes you need a wakeup call.

Life’s pace always triumphs… so when it throws a rapid change in pace at you, learn the lesson, sit back, and enjoy the ride.