Community Voices for Health

By: Mary Morris

I received an email from Loft retail stores the other morning.  It said “10 second style report” in the subject line, so I thought to myself, ‘Hmmm, I can probably handle 10 seconds to look at some fashion.’  And when I say “handle it,” I mean I can probably look at this email without interruption.  But, of course, I was wrong.  In a home with two children, there is bound to be interruptions.  But some days I feel I cannot get a simple task done without one.  Now it isn’t always children that provide the distraction.  Sometimes it is the telephone and sometimes it is someone at the door.  Or, it can be a loud noise outdoors or a pile of papers on the hallway table that catch my eye as I am heading to the bedroom to get laundry.  Those papers distract me enough that I get in the bedroom and I think, “Now why am I here again?”  So I go back to the hallway papers and as I flip through I see that a paper that needs to be signed for my daughter’s school and it is late.  Ugh.  Then I flip further and there is a bill on the verge of being late.  Not quite late, but it will be if I don’t drop everything, write a check and hand deliver it to the post office immediately.

So I open the “10 second” email and my son declares, “I am thirsty” and he is in the fridge pulling out a bottle of his desired beverage within less than 10 seconds.  I just glance at the pretty pastel colors they are advertising before I jump up and grab the heavy juice container before it lands on the floor and really creates a distraction.  It reminds me of the time I was talked into buying cranberry ginger ale for my daughter and as I opened the bottle, it exploded all over my white kitchen.  Both kids jumped up cheering and yelling, “That was cool!!  Do it again!”  Yes, that was a very cool mess!

Anyway, I sit back down to look at the email and my son announces, “I am hungry.”  Now bear in mind, he has eaten breakfast and it is too early for a snack.  I stop and say, “You will be having a snack in a while so play with your toys”.  He is looking at me like he is about to start some long winded negotiation and I say, “Okay….goodbye.”  I have now given up on the email and I am blogging this.  As I am typing this, he is saying “Goldfish” every 3 seconds or so.  Not as a complete thought, but as a subliminal message floating through the air. “Goldfish.”  He is, of course, talking about Pepperidge Farm goldfish snacks.  I can almost anticipate the next interruption.  Will it be the phone ringing or will he have finished his drink and need a refill?

Well, the point of this is there are many interruptions in everyone’s life.  I guess it is how we manage them that really matters, right?  I never did get to look at that email which had pretty colors, spring fashion, and jewelry.  Maybe one day soon I will pop into the store and look at them in person.  There is nothing like feeling all those textures, smelling the perfume and…what?  There is my own thought interruption.  That’s right, I have no time for that.  I have a bill to pay, a permission slip to sign, and a toilet to clean!  And that’s what I need to do for the next few minutes…..until the next interruption!!