I had a head-on collision with one of my character flaws earlier this week.
I am not a delegater.
Despite what you might be inclined to think, I can't tell people to do this or go do that and hurry up while you're at it, would you pretty please?
It might appear otherwise but I know better and so does my maker, who completely understands my wiring because he facilitated it -- maybe even celebrated it -- and saw it to fruition.
I was reminded anew of my difficulties with delegating when I was in the midst of taking my time taking down Christmas decorations.
Now I have mixed emotions about when they need to come down or how long they should stay up since I am the daughter of a woman who would wince at the very notion of them being put away before St. Patrick's Day.
Talk about savoring the season through March 17.
Our decorations this year went up in the initial days of December, with an explosion of holiday decor in multiple rooms, even the kitchen, so the one-month mark seemed fitting, or so I reasoned as I plugged in the trees for one last lighting and fixed a cup of coffee in one of my many Christmas mugs.
Decorating and undecorating are largely household duties I assume without intervention or modest interest in assistance being expressed by any other under-the-same-roof dwellers.
For some reason, however, this year it was different.
"Do you need any help?" came Better Half's sincere inquiry offered more than once.
Was I dreaming?
The first time a spouse says such a thing, though, I'm inclined to think you're just being polite, or you have to say that for the sake of marital harmony, for husband-and-wife well being.
It's a loaded question, to be sure, and my initial thought as a non-delegater struggling to figure out for myself where to start and progress from Point A to Point B was, "No, thanks, but thanks for asking" or "I'm good, I've got this."
But "yes" spilled out of my mouth.
I think I was as surprised as he was.
We probably should have said a prayer for peace before we started, but we winged it.
Better Half demonstrated bravery and refined the art of walking on eggshells in working with a non-delegating wife accustomed to working alone on such things as taking down Christmas decorations.
If you're used to doing things yourself in silence on something with maybe just some tunes from a musical monopolizing your head space, hearing a question all of a sudden seems odd.
"What do I do with these?" Better Half would ask throughout the process, dangling some ornaments hung from his fingers or holding another wreath.
Someone wanting me to figure something out seems too great a request at times, especially when I don't have the answer.
We figured it out as we progressed through a process where mind-reading and "just do it" seemed like a healthy approach.
You know someone really loves you when they still love you after you've taken down five trees together and all the strings of light and delicate ornaments that need wrapped and returned them all to their boxes which are wherever I put them when I began the decorating process.
Add to that decorations that are everywhere else -- on shelves and table tops and counters and hanging here and there -- not to mention outdoors.
Maybe Christmas 2023 will be collision-free.