Just doing a routine procedure of opening and discarding old expired laundry detergent, I had a stray drop of liquid soap missile-shoot me in my unprotected eyeball.

Soap. That’s all it was. But soap’s job is to break down biological components and release them from where they are held bound. Well it went straight to work on the biological components of my eye ball.

It stung. It stung a lot. The thought of the possibility that I had ruined my eye forever more than passively occupied my thoughts.

I flushed the eye with water at the eye wash station, just as we’re told to do so. I flushed again and again.

Eventually it stopped stinging and just became sore, swollen, and goopy.

I went to an eye doctor the next day and had the eye checked out. I found I had burned part of the white of the eye but no real permanent damage. I did, however, had to endure yet another, but professional, eye flush.

The eye still hurts today and it will for a short time; it already shows signs of improvement. But I have to sit back and wonder what I should learn from this.

Wear eye protection? That would seem logical, but I doubt I would hunt down a pair for just opening buckets of soap. So maybe, just look away when the pull tab pops off. Old dog-new tricks thing, I guess.

Don’t take your vision for granted? (Granite for some people out there). I did wonder what it would be like if I lost my sight in that eye. Made me re-think the eye protection thing for a few minutes. I feel grateful that I have vision. I think I already try to take a healthy note of the things around me now, but maybe I should take even that few extra moments to soak it all in a little deeper. There’s no guarantees that my vision will always be with me, with or without my stupidity.

I believe the true lesson to take from this episode is more obvious than the other two.

Delegation.

(I kid of course)

I find it amazing how easily life can take away your options if you let it.

Give an evening just a few minutes and it’ll take a few hours. Sit to watch just one show on TV and the night’s other activities are decimated.

I really don’t know how some can keep up with all the new, current, and ending shows and still get anything done.

I think I will have to remain a hermit, as they go in these days. Live on TV by proxy, watch movies on Redbox- forming my watch list by their previews, and catch the quick cast for news.

I might be disconnected in certain circles, but I wonder how much that will all mean in the end.

A little river with big fish.

I recently made a return to the Strawberry River, pictured above. Beautiful place in central Utah. The amazing thing about this little river is that it produces really big fish. Not just in the deep pools between the shallow riffles, but it feeds Strawberry Reservoir, which is big and produces even bigger fish.

The point being, don’t judge this little creek, as some might see it, based on its outward appearance. Despite its small size when compared to many other rivers, what’s inside is truly amazing. This concept might apply to a few other things too.

May my humble blog equally produce.

~mmj

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