Red Paint

I had a moment yesterday... that I am now referring to as a red paint moment. You have had one... I'm sure. Here's how it happened.

It all started with the idea to put our boys into the same room to make way for the upcoming baby. Such a move must require some sort of painting (right guys). So the plan became relayed to me from my lovely wife that we must tear down the wallpaper on the east wall and we must paint it red. OK so far. She rips down the paper... we pick up with paint... OK so far.

So yesterday I get home and, with work clothes still on, I help her load a few items into the car. I accidentally bumped into the can... it topples... top of can pops off... and 1 gallon of red paint pours out onto the garage floor. Now this is not good... but it could be worse. So for the next hour I drop all my plans and clean up the red paint.

That my friends is a red paint moment. It is when something unplanned happened that requires you to stop all your doing and to clean up the mess. There is no other way around a red paint moment. These won't kill and often don't seriously hurt you... but they require immediate action and often involve the learning of a life lesson.

I've experience all sorts of red paint moments that have taught me lots of lessons:

...like when 2 guys sat down with me to talk about something they saw in my life... red paint.
...like when my wife shared her loneliness during my first year of grad school... red paint.
...or right after college when my credit card was rejected for overdraft... red paint.

Do you have any share-able red paint moments? I've come to realize that red can go with just about anything and the lessons learned are a valuable part of the life we've been given.