Wait just a second...

Yesterday at work, I had to go upstairs to my office. I wanted to check my mailbox. When I need to go from the 4th floor up to the 7th, I grab the elevator. I know I should take the stairs but I'm fat and lazy. So I hit the button to call the elevator and a couple other men come up to wait also. We stand there and wait and wait and wait - for probably 3 or 4 minutes. I can hear the mule unloading some skids on a different floor. Usually I just wait, but I get antsy and think - "I'll just take the stairs"

I turn around to head up the stairs and look into the emplyee discount shop, which is at the foot of the stairs. I think I havn't been in a while, so I head in to take a quick look around. As soon as I get about 3 steps in to the shop, I hear the bell and door open on the elevator, I ponder turning around to hope on but decide not to. I walk quickly through the shop and seeing nothing, head back out.

The men who were waiting with me, are gone now, and I think about hitting the call button again to take the elevator. I stop, think, decide not to, and head to the stairs. I'm somewhere between the 5th and 6th floors and meet a woman coming down the stairs. Shes talking on her cell phone, and her other hand is full of books. She's coming down and I'm going up.

When we are about three steps apart, as she is taking a step down, her toe catches in her opposite pant leg. Her momentum is still bringing her down the stairs, but her foot is caught. Reminiscent of not wearing a seatbelt in the front seat and having Mom smack me in the chest to hold me back as she slams on the breaks, I quickly stick my arm out in front of her and grab the opposit hand rail, so she falls against my arm.

Granted I didn't save her life or anything, but I did stop her from taking a header down half a flight of concrete stairs. All I could think of was - why did I decide to go check my mail right now? Why didn't I take the elevator either time I could have? Why did I go through the discount shop?

If I had been one second ahead or behind where I was, I might not have been able to catch her. That's weird. I think about that with car accidents alot. If that guy would have spent 3 more seconds fixing his chair, tunning the radio, looking one way or the other on the road - he may have not gotten killed in a car wreck. If he would have been 3 seconds earlier then he could have hit that school bus.

Its funny how many seconds we waste or rush. Maybe there's a reason for every second in our life. It reminds me of some saying that I heard "The wind from the flap of a butterfly's wing, changes the weather."