“Check it over then check it again (and maybe again)”

February 28, 2011

Today’s Bit of Advice….

“Check it over then check it again (and maybe again)”

My dad has taught me many valuable lessons in my lifetime.  He’s a pretty handy guy and I enjoyed watching him work in his basement workshop when I was a child.  He would let me sit on the tall stool at his workbench where  I would play with all kinds of neat things like the nail sizing tool (you try out the nails in the labeled holes to see what size they are) and the label maker.  I always loved the label maker!

But this blog isn’t about the label maker.

During a wood working project, my father would always throw out the reminder “Measure twice, cut once”.  Why measure twice and cut once?  Because you can measure over and over for accuracy but you only get one chance to cut the right length on the first try. 

This bit of advice came to mind today as I thought about two recent events.  First, my kindergartener came home from school today and said “I got to have a peanut butter sandwich at school today”.  (I think she was happy about it too!).  Well, I was a bit surprised to hear about the PB&J because the child was signed up to get the hot lunch today – her favorite, hot ham and cheese wrap.  At her Catholic school, we sign up to buy hot lunch a month in advance.  You choose the days you want hot lunch, circle them on the form, and send in the payment.   My children buy every Monday and I always mark the lunch choice in our calendar.  How is it possible the child got a PB&J?  All I can figure is that I missed a circle on the lunch form.  I paid for the lunch but, if you don’t circle it, you don’t get a lunch.  Fortunately, our caring lunch staff will always throw a PB&J your way when your mother forgets to check the form (and then check it again).

The other event that made me think about this advice is one of the reasons that my blogs have been so few and far between lately.  I took on a volunteer job doing all of the design, layout, and editing for an almost 200 page book of memories for a local historical association. The project has been a several month process and many, many hours of work.  The majority of my work has involved checking, checking, checking….  I check layout.  I check punctuation.  I check spelling.  I check sentence structure.  I check details.  Fortunately, I am in the final stages of all this checking and the only remaining detail is the Table of Contents (listing the names of the writers).  I think I have it finished but it still needs to be checked.  And then checked again.  I realized the other day, when I checked the first draft of the TOC, that I left out one writer’s name.  An important person too!  Yikes – but awfully glad that I found the mistake when I did.  Check and check again.

I’ve always been a bit of a checker.  When I pull out of the garage I have to look back two or three times to make sure I have shut the garage door.  I check the oven a few times to make sure it gets turned off when dinner is done cooking.  No less than three checks on the alarm clock before I go to sleep.  But this type of checking is not so much a concern about accuracy – it is more about anxiety.  I get so worried that I will forget to do certain things that I go overboard checking to make sure they get done.

It is hard to know how many times to check those little things and even harder to make yourself stop checking.

When we went to mass on Sunday, we were pleased to see that one of our favorite priests, Fr. Sullivan, would be saying mass.  He is a retired priest with a wonderful sense of humor, a very holy presence, and a way with words.  We always look for a message in the homily that we can bring back home and implement into our lives – we call it our “take away”.  This week’s take away was “Do what you can and let God take care of the rest”.  I found that message to be very reassuring.  I can check the garage door once and then, when I start to worry about the door and if I remembered to shut it, I can just ask God to take care of it.

Aaahhhh.

So, check it over and then check it again as needed.  But don’t let your life become consumed by checking and worry.  Do what you can, and let God take care of the rest.

I will still probably check the alarm clock three times before going to sleep, however.  The peaceful sleep that follows a good alarm check is better than any expensive mattress can provide.

Hope you enjoyed the read.