Hi Friends,
This is your weekly edition of The Friday Five Hundred. This week, I wrote a story for you. Here goes (clears throat)...
“We are late again!” I yelled out to my kids, who were putting their jackets on. “Get your things together and let’s go.”
“If we get out now, find a parking spot, and mad dash to the entrance, we can still make it,” I shouted.
“I have the masks,” Rihab waved the masks in her hand.
“I have the water bottles,” Rania grabbed the water bottles from the kitchen.
“I have to poop,” Haya said.
Just like that, Haya brought us to the ground. I recalled my Writer friend Marissa’s comment about kids: “They [kids] are the best teachers to remind us we don’t have control over sh*t, literally and figuratively.” I’m a witness that these words are truer than true.
After attending to Haya’s nature’s call, there was no buffer time.
We ran to the car as I fiddled with my keys. After buckling the kids in, I jumped in the driver’s seat and reversed out of my driveway.
Driving towards school, I was determined to still make it on time, or else I’d have to do the walk of shame to the front desk and sign them in.
To my relief, the doors were still open. The doorkeepers gestured to come faster. The kids slid into the door right when the bell rang.
“We made it!” I said out loud as I tried to catch a breath.
I turned back and resolved to never let this happen again.
Feeling into my body, I realized how tired I already felt and my day had not even started. This adrenaline rush in the morning was doing me no favors. With my head down, I kicked the pavement for my failure to be on time.
Off into the distance, I saw a woman dressed in pink and maroon heels holding the hand of a child. They were running but their run wasn’t frantic and there was a playful bounce. The closer she came, a beaming smile became apparent. We crossed paths and she looked at me with a wide grin and a glint in her eyes.
“We are late,” She declared.
I smiled back in confusion and nodded.
What mindset was she on? What side of the bed did she get up from? Who can be happy about being late?
There was a stark difference between my attitude and hers. While I was exerting energy and fighting an uphill battle of getting to school on time with a late start, this woman had accepted she was late and basked in the glory of the present moment. She didn’t allow her lateness to ruin her day or shame herself for being the last one in.
As I walked out from the vicinity of the school, I looked at the flurry of autumn leaves showering me. The trees were losing their leaves and the leaves their tree, yet the tree stood its ground and the leaves fluttered and danced before falling on the ground.
When I reached my car, my reflection on the car window smiled back at me as if a deep secret of the Universe unveiled right before me.
In honor of this story, this email is fashionably late or I'm being silly and trying to catch a breath.
This weekend is the weekend before the weekend that falls before Thanksgiving. I intentionally made no plans to allow myself to pause and breathe. I'd love to know what are you up to this weekend? Do you make plans or do you keep it open? Until next Friday!
Love,
Sana Fayyaz
