It doesn’t happen often. When it does I find myself asking questions that usually start with a single ‘Why?’ that quickly turns into a virtual flash flood of them and today it happened. I rushed from my office exactly when my part of the client coverage schedule ended to the train station just in time to watch it pull away.

Trains don’t take off down the track like NHRA cars. It would be incredibly awesome if they did and just might increase ridership.  Nope.  They pull away from the platform at a tantalizingly slow crawl.  So slow it’s almost a whisper, “Come on.  Run.  You’ll be able to make it.”  Of course doing so is frowned upon and likely one of the reasons the train doors are closed prior to departure.

So there I stood at the end of platform 13, watching the train leave and that first ‘Why?’ crept into my thoughts.  Why didn’t I run?  No, not to try jumping aboard but to get there just a little sooner.  If not a full out run why didn’t I at least rush from my office building to the train station?  Then the flood gates opened and let loose a torrent. My mind went through all the little things that took next to no time at all to do but combined led me to this very moment – not on the train.

Why didn’t I close some programs when I was done with them before shutting down my laptops (yes I use more than one at work)?  Why did I wait for the shutdown to finish before unlocking their security cables?  Why hadn’t I stowed my travel mug when I had finished my eye opening coffee at 10:30?  Why was my iPhone USB charging cord still attached when a) the phone was fully charged and b) not even connected?  All these and many more ‘Why?’s sped through my mind in just a few seconds.  Of them all the only one I had a real answer for was the first because it was the easiest.

Why didn’t I run or rush from my office?  Mind you I was rushing all along to get out of the office and once free of the building itself more than considered not a full out sprint but a measured jog to the station.  I’ve done it before.  I’m sure I could do it again.  I’m positive I could have done it now.  The answer is, well, I’ve got a bum knee paired with a damaged arch and while capable of running the end result would have been one of two scenarios.  I could have run and perhaps made it (remember at the time I had no idea I’d end up watching the train pull away) but would suffer greatly for my actions later that evening and likely for the next 2-3 days for a reward of getting home 20-30 minutes sooner.  The other outcome would be missing the train and left with only the pain ahead.

As for the rest I didn’t have an answer because any one of them I could have and should have seen to sooner or done just a bit differently.  And that’s just it.  It’s the little, seemingly innocuous things that put us in situations we could easily have avoided.  Though we all can look back and point out that one light we missed that made us late it wasn’t the light at all but the things we failed to do in a timely fashion before hitting the road.  It’s those little things in life which we do have control over yet let take control of us.  So, going forward I’ll try harder to see to the little things and so doing won’t find myself standing at the end of the platform watching life’s train slowly pull away.

Looks like they’re announcing my next train.  Since I’m comfortably already here I can relax, walk calmly through Gate B, and really take in the world that surrounds me. Hey, what do you know,  it’s on a different platform too.  Maybe that’s a good sign.

– Orion