DECISION MAKING

I'm not famous for my brilliant decision-making. In fact, a quick look back at my history and I'm staring, at best, at a mixed report card, with quite a few incomprehensible blotches.

"What was I thinking?" I ask myself. What, indeed. But Older Me has more hindsight and less emotional mist to see through. Plus, you can't apply learning you acquired through error, to yourself before you made it. Those two things are cause and effect.

What Older Me doesn't have an excuse for, is walking to work in the rain this morning.

I peered out of the window and saw the trees waving in the breeze against the grey sky. There was a smattering of drizzle and the pavements were wet. I would risk it. I would walk it.

And so, seventy minutes later, I arrived, looking as though I had been pushed face-first into a swimming pool. Every bit of me was wet, from socks to baseball cap. I had a change of clothes in my rucksack, so I was okay, but drenched. Walking had turned out to be a poor choice.

How ever...

I also really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the sound of the rain, the feel of it, the smell of it. I enjoyed the cars swooshing past while I was alone with my thoughts, and I enjoyed the gorgeous tunnel of dripping trees, that arches over the top of Pincents Lane. I enjoyed the glistening roof-tiles of white-plastered cottages, and I enjoyed the mist over the valley. It felt like being on holiday in many ways. And weirdly, I didn't even mind that work was at the end of the journey. My mind was focused on hot tea and porridge, rather than emails and projects.

A few of my poor decisions in the past have been impulsive. Emotions take over in the middle of a situation, and it's hard to see what the wisest thing to do is. We are consumed by what we want sometimes. That's why we need friends, I suppose - people who annoy us when we ask them for advice, and then we thank much later when we realise they were righter than right.

I got to work, changed, and heated up my porridge in the semi-reliable microwave. I wonder if that porridge would have tasted so sweet if I hadn't walked through the rain? I guess some decisions are what they are, but when you're half-way down the road, you can always make the best of it.

And learn! Next time, if it's raining at all, I think I'll take the bus.