On November 4, 2011, I wrote a post that contained a list of things I needed to do that weighed heavily on me. Some of those things I’ve actually done (cleaned the room in our basement)… some of them I haven’t (lost 7 pounds).
One thing I hadn’t done was change the batteries in the smoke detectors.
That was six months ago, and I’d say that 70% of nights since then, I’ve laid in bed and worried about the smoke detector batteries being dead, the house catching on fire, and all of us dying. Each morning, though, when I was actually able to do something about it, I wouldn’t think of it. Until I tried to go to sleep again, of course.
Wednesday night I decided enough was enough. I bought some batteries and was determined to finally put my OCD fears to rest. I pulled a chair into the hallway, under the smoke detector that is right outside the bedrooms. The one I had worried about for months on end.
As it turns out, the damn thing is wired in to the electricity of the house.
It was so anti-climatic! But it occurred to me that there was a lesson in it. I had spent so much time and energy obsessing worrying about something that was a complete non-issue.
How many other things do I worry about that have no basis in reality?
Anyway, I discovered that the smoke detector did have a battery as a back up, so I went ahead and changed that. But when I reassembled the thing, it started chirping. You know that sound – the one that means the battery is about to die? So annoying. And I couldn’t get it to stop. Obviously the battery wasn’t dead. I thought maybe I had put the battery in wrong so I took it all apart again and checked. It was situated the right way, but the chirping continued. It was after nine by that point. The kids were ready to go to bed, and I could sense a giant melt down brewing under Kate’s surface. I was about ready to cut the wires just to make it stop when I googled it, and basically found out that I needed to leave it alone for 10 minutes and my problems would be solved.
Fortunately, that worked.
So then I modified the lesson learned – worrying about problems that don’t exist can lead to problems that actually really do exist.
Basically, I need to calm my ass down. We’ll see if that happens.
