If Only For One: Choices

Sometimes, If Only For One can be a choice.  Making one little choice can greatly alter your course, and you may not even realize it.

As many of you know my birthday was on July 7th and my mother’s is the 8th.  I wouldn’t see Mom on her birthday, so I asked her to meet me for ice-cream on my birthday (it was a spur of the moment plan but I thought it would be a nice treat and just the two of us).  I also had to take care of a payment for a credit card that was due. I figured I would pay it online rather than dropping it off because I needed to get to my date with Mom.

I made the call and the payment. At the end the auto system said “if you are processing this after 5:00pm it won’t post for two days” because it was considered after hours.  It was a balance of $10.00 and it would have a $25.00 late fee. I decided to go in and make the payoff in-store and avoid a $25 fee for a $10 final balance. I decided to enjoy my time with my mom first and stop by the store after to pay the $10.00.

When I made it to the store, I asked the girl at the register if the payment had been made. She was new to the job and didn’t know so I went to customer service. They said an in-store payment is processed the same day because it’s local. If you pay online or on the phone it’s back east so it is considered late.

As I was leaving the store, the cashier saw me at the door and asked about the answer to my question. She felt bad for not being able to tell me. I told her, and said no worries. I explained there are many things to get upset about; life is too short you just never know what can happen. This was not an issue.

Well, that being said, I was driving home and it’s about 15 minutes away.

Earlier when I phoned to make my payment, the automated message told me the processing time. This prompted when I chose to go by the store to pay. I made a choice to pay after ice cream.  I could have gotten upset and been a jerk to the cashier, but made one little choice to keep Peace.

25 -30 minutes earlier, on the very street I would be traveling on, a car ran a red light. It hit a car in the lane I would have been in.  They were re-directing traffic and the way I would have been traveling if I had been returning from my ice cream date. I could have been the one, the one who was hit.

When I talk about IF ONLY FOR ONE it can be in all we do. One choice can cause a chain of reactions, or a change of ACTIONS. I know one thing for sure, by taking the less stress and lighter look at situations, tonight I was the one who was spared.