A Purple Sticky Note

A little purple sticky note with a random looking email address on it, had a powerful message on stress for me this week. I had been going multiple directions, trying to keep up with too many things and my brain was apparently on overload this week, when this purple sticky note was sitting there on my desk, staring me in the face, and defying me to remember where it came from, what I needed to do with it, and who was on the other end of this simple email address! In between appointments, which was literally seconds for most of the day, I wrestled with the questions of who, where, and why regarding my purple sticky note. I shared my dilemna with my accountability group the next day and was comforted to know that maybe I am just getting old and suggestions were made that maybe I need to play some tennis and relieve some stress. But it haunted me, nonetheless, that I was letting someone down who had handed me this sticky note, and someone was awaiting an email from me…if I could only remember! After returning to my office, I actually had a 10 minute break and my brain began to unwind and decompress. Wait a second, I know who may have given it to me….I think. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to give him a call and see…of course I will feel stupid if it wasn’t, but I will just ask. “Hello, did you give me a purple sticky note with an email on it Tuesday night?…..You did! Great!” What a relief.  Finally, I could go on without worrying between every appointment and phone call where in the world the purple sticky note came from. Phew! But maybe my sticky note had a message: It is time to slow down, put a bit of a margin between things and give my brain a little time to decompress without waiting for a purple sticky note to show up and shock me into the realization that I need to slow down and write things down when my brain goes into overload next time!  Maybe there is a reason God said to “Be still” sometimes.

Paul