Lessons learned.

About three weeks ago I was chopping potatoes. I stopped paying attention for a moment. I turned to answer a question but I kept chopping. Bye-bye left edge of left thumb. A trip to Urgent Care and a few sutures later I was all fixed up and back home. Lesson learned, pay attention when you are chopping potatoes. OK.

Yesterday I was chopping carrots (three weeks after the potatoes incident). And I stopped paying attention for a moment. And just like that, bye-bye middle-portion-and-right-edge of the same thumb. No trips to Urgent Care this time. I was too irritated and embarrassed with myself (ahh, ego). I cleaned it, taped the heck out of it, and sat down to reflect. What lesson did I miss the first time?

These are the possible lessons I have come up with so far:

1. Pay attention when cutting vegetables to only the vegetables and only the knife and nothing else (Obvious, right?!? One would think I had learned that the first time.)
2. Use duller knives (although some would disagree with this and say it would make it worse)
3. Stop chopping vegetables – subsist on pre-cut bread and pre-cut cheese and fruit, like berries!
4. Slow down. Stop multi-tasking. All. The. Time.
5. Hire a cook (bwahahahaha. not in this lifetime)
6. Keep a well-stocked first aid kit at home
7. Buy pre-cut vegetables
8. Show more appreciation for my non-dominant hand, especially that thumb (I had no idea how much I used that thumb until now)

So if I were my own best friend I would remind myself to look for the lessons life hands you. And if something happens a second time to really really look for the lesson that is hiding there because maybe I missed it the first time. For now though I will happily eat bread and cheese and berries and start interviewing for household help. Oh, and pay more attention. What, huh? Squirrel.