Hindsight is 20/20

So... a LOT has happened since my last post. We moved to Mississippi in January, rented an apartment in the 'hood because they allow pets, sold our home in Florida, and bought a new house here 3 weeks ago. We still had a month on our lease, so have been moving our belongings over bit by bit.

As I was leaving the apartment yesterday with almost all of the last small items, I remembered I had left my iced tea inside. I grabbed the apartment key, and  locked the car. 

Oops.

Immediately, I realized I'd locked my car key and my phone inside the car. Long story short ... Yes, it was a bad situation, but I did NOT allow myself to panic!

Do you have any idea how monumental that is for me?

There was a time when this type of thing would have instantaneously, completely dissolved me into tears and a major meltdown. It's times like these that I realize I really HAVE come a long way.

I don't automatically depend on unproductive or harmful coping mechanisms  I don't freak out over the big stuff nearly as often (although the little stuff still can trigger a short period of panic.)

So, I did the sober adult thing, and assessed the situation. 

I thought through my options:

• Going to the management office (it was closed)
• Breaking a window (last ditch option only)
• Walking home (10 miles in the rain, and 3 miles on I-10, plus no way inside)
• Calling a locksmith (no phone and no way to Google)
• Calling AAA (no phone, and membership card inside my wallet)
• Finding some way to contact Roy from a number he wouldn't recognize and pray that he'd pick up, or at least see he had a voicemail

I was blessed to find a kind neighbor who let me use his phone. Roy didn't pick up, so I left him a calm voicemail explaining what happened. (I checked with him. He said it was calm.) I went back into the apartment and began cleaning.

After about an hour, my kind neighbor knocked on my door and said Roy had called him back and would be there in about 45 minutes. I thanked him profusely, and went back to cleaning.

In no time at all my handsome hero showed up to rescue his ditsy damsel. And they all lived happily ever after. The End.

Seriously, all turned out well. Roy was planning to come by the apartment before coming home anyway, so it wasn't a burden or out of the way for him, AND he just happened to have my extra car key with him. 

Funny how life goes more smoothly -- even when it's a bit bumpy -- once we realize we really were never in control in the first place.

We will intuitively know how to handle situations which used to baffle us. We will suddenly realize that God is doing for us what we could not do for ourselves.