The Stall

Sitting in my office today, this seemingly ordinary situation I have watched unfold has brought on considerable pondering. It has made me stop and think about the challenging problems we sometimes put ourselves in - whether intentional or not.?

The office space I work in has four enormous floor-to-ceiling windows that are the entirety of the north wall of my office. ? Directly outside that window is a parking lot and then a large grocery store where I watch people come and go as I get through my work day.?

Today though, something caught my attention and made me stop and think. I watched a minivan back into a parking stall with a vacant stall on its driver's side and a small car parked in the passenger side stall. After a few minutes, a lady, perhaps in her late 40's early 50’s emerges from the driver seat, and the driver's side sliding door on the minivan opens, and two young boys jump out - eager to go inside with her. The lady closes the doors, locks her vehicle, and the trio heads into the store.

A short while later, the three emerge from the store with a shopping cart loaded with bags of the goodies they have purchased inside. What's important to note is that when the lady backed into the stall she chose, directly behind her vehicle was a nicely landscaped boulevard with large rocks, some tall grass bushes and a few poplar trees. She opens the back hatch of her minivan using the remote, and it slowly rises.??

?Now for the challenging part - if you have yet to see how this will play out.??

This lovely lady is wearing a beautiful dress as it’s a warm fall day and strappy sandals.? But now I'm watching her, by herself as the two youngsters with her have already jumped into their seats in the minivan, struggle - nearly twisting her ankles a dozen times - while she loads her shopping into the back of the minivan while stepping on these large rocks, maybe trying to step between them but realizing her foot will get stuck. One slip off one of those rocks and quite quickly, she could have sprained an ankle, broken a leg, or even cracked her head open.??

I watched this happening and immediately asked, even out loud as I sat alone in my office, “Why did she park there?”.? (I was also watching if she fell, as I was close enough to help if needed).? It wasn't a stall that was overly close to the door or convenient to return the cart (the cart return space was back up at the store entrance.? Had she parked in the more oversized lot, there would have been a few cart garages, as I call them, where she could have made a trip in seconds to return the cart.? Let’s suppose there was some magic reason that she chose that stall. Had she pulled in instead of backing in, she could have loaded her groceries with much more ease and personal safety. So why?

This observation then took on a more extensive thought process for me. In the case of this lady and her choice of parking stall, why choose a stall that is no closer to the store entrance than many others, nowhere near a cart return and then back in knowing that your ability to access the rear of your vehicle is going to be very risky and cause potential harm. ? But let’s think about this in a bigger picture.?

How many situations in our careers, lives, and relationships do we make increasingly more complex than warranted?? I’m sure we have all had those moments where we get to the end of a situation - the post-mortem, so to speak - and think, “That could have gone better” - I sure have.???

Sometimes I think we are so focused on getting through whatever we have to do that making it simple doesn’t even cross our minds.? I’m not judging this lady - I’ve likely done many things in my life where someone watching from afar would question how I went about it.??

A lesson this taught me, though, and this lady will never know she had this impact on my life unless she is reading this, and if she is - thank you!? I’ve started making a concentrated effort when executing a task. Asking - is there a better way?? Is this the most time-effective plan?? What is the future outcome???

Life is too short to make things more complicated than they have to be.?