Distractions

At the beginning of September, we took a little break from normal life and joined my parents for a vacation.  We stayed at a hotel resort up high in the mountains.  It was beautiful.  There is something amazing about cool, clean mountain air--the smell and feel of it is peaceful and restorative.

At the beginning, we were on a different floor than my parents.  One evening, Camden and Nate were with me as we went to join everyone else.  The three of us waited for the elevator.  It opened and some people walked out.  One of them commented on how Nate had spit up, so I turned my attention to him.  At that same moment, Camden ran into the elevator and the doors shut.  I pushed the button to signal the elevator to open the doors, but the doors did not open.  The elevator had already left.

I waited there until the elevator finally returned, hoping that Camden had stayed inside, but he was not inside.  There were 6 floors above me and 5 below me, and each floor had 2 wings. Quickly, I checked the floor below me, but didn't find him.  After the elevator returned to that floor, I headed to the top floor to recruit some more help.

The elevators seemed to be working too slowly, so most of us used the stairs, running down one floor at a time.  I thought of going to the very bottom first, because one time no one pushed a button soon enough, and the elevator automatically took us to the bottom. I  decided to check each floor one by one instead.

I felt more and more anxious as each floor passed.  He really is such a cute little thing.  I started to pray.  As I checked the next floor, I thought I needed to go to the bottom floor.  This time I did.  As I got out, a lady asked if I was looking for a little boy.  (How could she guess?  Was it that I was barefoot, wearing my swimsuit--we had been going to go to the hot tub--or was it the expression and tears on my face?)  I turned the corner, and there was my Camden boy--in the restaurant on the first floor.  The restaurant manager was holding my little guy, who had tears streaming down his face.  She had just called my parents' room.  I'll never know quite how she knew who to call.

So grateful.  So very grateful to have my Camden boy back.  We headed back to our room, all the way at the top, and started texting everyone that he had been found.  How long had it been?  10 minutes? Half an hour?  I have no idea how long he was gone from me. 

As I read what I've written, it sounds like it went as well as could have been expected.  It certainly did not feel that way at the time. 

As I've thought about this experience, I look back to how it happened.  I allowed myself to be distracted.  I let another person make me think that Nate's spit-up was more important than my Camden.  It happened very, very quickly.  Yes, it was an accident.  I didn't know that Camden would run in and that the doors would shut within a few seconds.  I didn't know that the button wouldn't recall the elevator.  But, Camden still got lost because my attention was not properly focused.  


What other very small, very fast things can have large consequences?  This experience has made me think of how I must be focused all the time on the most important things.  I have to make choices that make the most important things the focus.