Take Your Eggs to Therapy

Recently, I was scrambling to be on time for my therapy appointment (yes, therapists have therapists too) and it was one of those 85 degree days in New England.  As I pulled into the parking lot of the office building, I suddenly remembered a coworker had given me a dozen farm fresh eggs and that fresh eggs, or any eggs for that matter, don’t do well inside a car that is about to get above 100 degrees over the next hour.

I stopped.  I weighed whether or not just one hour in high temperatures would really make a difference, and I decided that it wasn’t worth the risk.

Do I cancel the appointment last minute?  Say I am running late and run the eggs home first?  Cut the session short so the amount of time in the heat is reduced?

Or do I just take them with me?

It occurred to me that my purse was big enough to securely carry an egg carton, it was just carrying other less important items in that moment.  I emptied my purse of the less important items to make room for the eggs and then carefully entered my appointment on time, eggs safely in tow.

This experience reminded me to slow down, and that I already have what I need.  I am responsible for my own values and my own priorities.  If there is something that is important to me in a given moment, I can make the choice to attend to it if I am willing to shift some other things around, even just temporarily.  The other items I usually carry in my purse would return to it soon, but for a little while I needed to secure something else and set those things carefully to the side.  And that is all OK.

I know you are probably wondering, and no, I did not tell my therapist when I came into the appointment that I unsuspectingly had a carton of eggs on me.  Although I was distracted by that thought at a few points in the session.  I was not ashamed of my eggs, but am actually relatively new to working with him, and I am in the therapeutic stage where I am still trying to seem like a normal adult.  Maybe next time…