LET IT BE

Reverb 10 Day 5

Prompt: Let Go. What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?


The glib answer here would be my waistline. Why nobody thought to warn me that menopause = complete change of body shape I can't think. Or perhaps they did and I just didn't pay any heed. That's probably it. Funny how selective hearing is at times. Seriously, tough one this prompt - there's nothing that instantly springs to mind. I did however at the start of the year make a decision to stop acting like Dobby in the Harry Potter films, constantly beating myself up. In my case because I hadn't achieved 'perfection', done everything myself, that everything wasn't quite exactly the way I'd planned. I decided to try and make life easier by delegating and sharing or sometimes, where possible and without compromising quality, try an easier option, a more laid back approach. No one else was putting pressure on me to be perfect so why was I doing so myself. I decided to adopt the mantra "if red isn't available use blue - and do it happily". !! Strange mantra perhaps but in my case it's worked and I'm definitely more laid back about 'stuff'. Of course the valium helps too. Just joking!!!

A couple of years ago I organised an Awards dinner and had chosen a main course of chicken. Unfortunately, for reasons I never did fathom the chef cooked lamb. I was wandering round the venue early evening getting ready for the guests that were arriving in around an hour's time and something was not 'smelling' right. Couldn't put my finger on it until suddenly I realised I was smelling lamb cooking and put two and two together. Oh! disaster. I consulted with the Operations Manager who confirmed
that it was definitely lamb in the oven. I was so upset - all the menus were wrong and everyone would think I'd made a mistake. What could be done? And now? Oh! woe was me. The Operations Manager (lovely guy - cool as a cucumber but actually pretty hot if you know what I mean wink wink) whisked away all the menus and stuck in a fresh piece of paper with the 'new' main course on. I started to breathe again. Do you know out the 100+ guests that showed up only one lady came to see me to ask what had happened to the chicken. And she was impressed that we'd managed to alter the menu - she'd checked it and seen 'the join'. I'm sure she was a crafter! So what was all my concern about. And so what if people realised there'd been a mistake and thought it was me. Was the world going to end, were people's lives in danger, did it really matter? The answer of course was and is no. And the only person putting pressure on me was me.

So now I do my best but if my best isn't good enough, well tough (always a worry with lamb)! And of course I never count my chickens 'til they're cooked.