DOES THE BELL RING IN YOUR HEAD?

Like your car’s GPS, the bell in your head is that little voice that harps “RECALCULATE!”  When a bell rings, there are three choices:

1.  Hear it – heed it. That bell says to me:  “Whoa Girl, feel that tug in your gut? That’s the cord of the bell – the cord of reason – pay attention to what’s about to happen. Are you SURE you want to do this???”  It rings right before I make a poor decision. If I’m present enough in that moment, I stop the action and recalculate, just like a Garmin. Afterwards, I think “WHEW! I Can’t believe I almost did/said that!”
2. Heard it – ignored it.  And usually, I regret it. This bell says, “WHOOOA Girl! Don’t you hear that bell? You’re gonna WHAT…Ignore it? You’ll be sorry!”  And I know it. Same as ignoring the GPS’ directions. This Bobbe is careless, hurried, harried, yet, hopeful that the bad decision, could somehow turn out well. If the decision turns out well, it’s followed by this thought, “YIKES! That was close. Too risky. But, I tricked that stupid bell. HA!” It’s like kicking the bell in the booty, if it had one. Caution: the bell will take revenge.  Do not doubt this. You won’t always be wrong, but you won’t always be lucky, either.  Mostly, I don’t heed bells. And I regret it. Every. Single. Time.  Examples…
   1. Did ONE more errand or task.  (Made me late.)
   2. Vacuumed quickly; lifted the dining room table (with my back) to straighten the rug. My back was fine. but the table-top vase? Not so much. The vase was Mom’s for, ohhhhh, fifty years. I possess it for, ohhhhh, five months and break it. I heard the bell, but was on a cleaning surge and it happens so rarely, I hated to interrupt progress.
   3. Picked up Dad to walk with us in the Vet’s Day Parade. He sported penny loafers and a thin jacket, but, we were late, so we left as he was. He was so cold (Upper body AND feet). I felt bad. But not as bad as his feet. Hello Bell, I’m the real ding-dong.
   4. Knee-jerk reaction at work: let someone off as a favor, leaving us short-handed and stressed. The ring of the bell needed to be more of a GONG.
3.  What bell? This is the response to cause concern.Either the bell was taking a snooze, or we were. In either case, not a bell was heard, hither or yon. Or however you sprechen Old English. People without bells in their heads are dangerous, at work, at home, anywhere. Is it ignorance or naivete? This has happened to me. I didn’t know what the reaction to an action I took would be.  I should be able to reason with myself before any action, wouldn’t you think?

The final ding of the bell is this. There are ALWAYS bells. Sometimes they’re very faint, but they’re there.  Let’s be totally honest with ourselves; if we quiet our minds enough, our response will be more like Tweety Bird: “I DO hear a bell!  I DO! I DO! I DO!  bw