The Hitch….

In a hurry? Don’t be. Take a hard earned lesson from Your Humble Correspondent (YHC).  Let me rewind the calendar to the 9th of August 2022, still in Kiwishiwi State Park, Minnesota.

We, like apparently most other Americans, were dodging the heat of the summer and had migrated to cooler climates. Due to the number of pax wanting to reserve spaces we found ourselves in a situation whereas we had to reserve one spot for 2 nights, move within the same campground to another space where we would stay for three nights. No big deal, good practice in breaking down and setting up.

We awoke to a beautiful, crisp Minnesota morning. A light dew on the grass and the orchestra of nature; frogs croaking, mosquitoes buzzing, loons joined in with a huge solos, and a possible smack on the water of a slapping beaver tail. My M had cooked another amazing breakfast and I was energetic to ready the outside areas of the trailer for our 200 yard move to the other site. As I was bringing up the stabilizers, putting away our screen room (we call it the living room), and other outside stuff I started getting a bit antsy to move as ‘check out time’ was an hour away.

Now my M, being the kind and likable person she is, had already talked to the camp hostess Ellen and knew no one was coming into our site until later and if we ran a bit late it would be ok. YHI (Your Humble Idiot) was task focused to move. In my hurry I half-stepped/half-jumped the trailer hitch allowing my foot to touch down for just a brief second before lighting on the other side…except it didn’t go like that. My foot hit that dew-kissed trailer hitch and down I went like a bag full of potatoes. Well, like any manly-man I hopped up and looked around to see if anyone saw that. Nope. Good. I approach the screen door and firmly said, “It’s time to move.” The M looks at me and merely replies, “Oh hon! Your legs bleeding badly, we should get that looked at.” I throw on some paper towels and wrap a bandana around it for pressure and get on with the move. Move-move-move the whole 200 yards and get set up. At which point the M says, “Now that your sock is covered in blood and I have to get that out before I launder it I am taking you somewhere to get that looked at?” Well we met the goal of being set up and to be honest at this point I didn’t have a choice, I said sure.

We hop in the truck and drive the hour over to Ely, Minnesota (pronounced Eel-ee by the natives) where she drops me off at the clinic. I go to the desk and the usual questions arise; are you a patient? Do you live here? Have you ever been here? And so on…finally, I tell the nice lady at the desk, “I just want to know if I have to have stitches in this gash. She looks down and says, “Oh, let me get the nurse.” My shin is throbbing now. After a bit of time the nurse shows up and stands about 5 feet. I explain what happened. She nods, and as I peel the bloody mess off my leg she gives the laceration a cursory look…again, about 5 feet away. “How’da do dat again?” She asks. I abbreviate the tale and say, “look, I just want to know if this (pulling back a big flap of skin to show the muscle) needs stitches. “No, I don’ think so. Ya, pretty sure you should be good.” and walks off.

…not the nurse, but she had the same look.

 

Guess that was better than having her reply with an Uff ‘da.

Well…there ya have it. No stitches required. Although 4 weeks after and there’s still a lump and a big gash my M says, “it needed stitches!” Those Northern Minnesota nurses are hearty women!

Is it possible to never hurry, but to get everything done?

It seems contradictory to our modern world, where everything is a rush, where we try to cram as much into every minute of the day as possible, where if we are not busy, we feel unproductive and lazy.

In fact, often we compete by trying to show how busy we are. I have a ten projects to do! Oh yeah? I have 40! The “winner” is the person who has the most insane schedule, who rushes from one thing to the next with the energy of a hummingbird, because obviously that means he’s the most successful and important.

Right?

Maybe not. Maybe we’re playing the wrong game — we’ve been conditioned to believe that busier is better, but actually the speed of doing is not as important as what we focus on doing.

So there ya have it. Take a lesson from me. Be present to what you are doing, there’s no need to be in a hurry to accomplish the task. Slow is smooth and smooth is fast.

“Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.” ~ Lao Tzu

Aye!