So I was scheduled for an interview on Wednesday with Tera Warner and she didn’t show.

I woke up this morning thinking,

Gosh, that’s weird. Every interaction I’ve had with her has been prompt and professional.”

Then I received this email:

So here I am.

With an apology.

I had it all mapped out…

Run to school, get the kids, feed them, stuff them in their rooms and
sit down with plenty of time left to make it for our call.

Ran to school…
Went to get the kids…

The kids weren’t there.

Apparently it was a practice day at school for their play.

*humpf*

Mika has told me there would be no practice.

I was paralyzed and pissed off. Didn’t quite know what to do.
Borrowed the office school phone and called my boyfriend to
see if he could track down your number by accessing my emails.

No good.
Couldn’t call my assistant.

I decided I was going to pull the kids out of practice, drag
their butts home and just have a lot less time for prepping for
our call.

No big deal.

Ran to Mika’s class and peeked in the door to see their practice.

I couldn’t do it.
The teacher was right in the middle of discussing Mika’s role and
I just couldn’t do it.

Sitting outside the door of her class, almost on the brink of tears,
I thought…

…what would Jennifer Louden do now?

Since I cannot call, cannot email, cannot pull my kids out of class
and will not make it home in time for the call, I’m going to throw
myself a party for one.

So I put my mitts back on and headed to a nearby park.

A big park.

I walked through the snow where no other person had appeared to walk
all winter.

I trudged myself out to the middle of huge football field and then
plopped myself back in the snow.

And for the first time in more weeks than I can count, I did absolutely
nothing.

I didn’t think.
I didn’t worry.
I didn’t try to hit the next thing on my to do list.
I lay watching snowflakes land on my eyelashes.

I took deep breaths and decided to make a snow
angel.

Brought me to tears. I walked slowly to hook myself
up with a bit of chocolate–the perfect ingredient for
my party for one.

Picked up some groceries and went to pick up the
kids smiling.

Been running ever since.

If I’d just wanted to send a dorky apology, I could have
fit it in before now.

But even as I write this my accountant is talking in one
ear on the phone with me while I pretend to be listening.

I wanted you to know that though circumstances kept
me from getting in touch with you, I hooked up telepathically
and honored your message, your wisdom.

I hope this hasn’t created a problem for you, and if
you want to flush me, I understand.

But hopefully this is evidence that women like me
need women like you to help us live with a bit more
“balance”.

Thanks, for listening and letting me  spill the beans on why I was not there Wednesday
to honor our call time and didn’t just shoot out a little explanation earlier.

Love and long, hot baths,

Tera

Life does not happen the way we script. It’s nice when we can leave some white space for emergencies but we can’t always do that or we would be god.

So next time you screw up, remember Tera taking care of herself instead of spending the hour waiting for her kids fretting and swearing.

And then take the time to make a poetic honest apology.

Because that apology inspired my heart and that totally rocks.

Thanks Tera!

P.S. Savor and Serve the World, my new project, is slowly getting finished. I can’t wait to unveil it to you.