What if

It was a quarter past midnight when she heard the noise. She sat up startled and listened, yes it was the sound of the telephone ringing. It was downstairs in the hallway, far away from her warm comfortable bed upstairs. Should she get it? She wondered.  

It was the middle of winter and freezing, the temperature downstairs was sure to be almost sub zero. And anyway if she got up now it would take her forever to fall asleep again afterwards, and she had work in the morning. No let it ring she thought. Again it persisted, “ring ring” who the hell could it be at this late hour?

Then she jumped up, remembering the words of her mom, “this is the death hour. No one calls you after 11pm on a week night unless someone you know or close to you has died”

Oh dear she thought, what if it is serious? What if something bad has happened to someone she loves?  Still the ring persisted. It must be important, she thought or they wouldn’t keep ringing. She got out of bed, slipped on her gown and stumbled down the stairs barefoot. Clutching her trembling body tight, as if to keep all warmth from escaping.

She got to the bottom of the stairs in record speed, almost tripping on the last step.

As she reached down to pick up the telephone receiver, it stopped. “Hello, hello, anyone there?” she said.

Dial tone.

Disappointed she trudged back upstairs with a sigh. Now I won’t be able to get back to sleep at all she thought. As her mind raced around all the possibilities of who the caller was and their reason for calling.

I have often sat down and played the ‘what if” game with myself. I’m sure you all know that game, the one where you think of all the decisions you have made and wondered, what if I had made a different one. I have also been in situations where my intuition tells me one thing and I have ignored it and had to suffer the consequences.

No one has the luxury of a 100% guarantee. I’m sure every divorced couple will tell you that the day they said “I do” they honestly thought it would last forever.

Life throws darts our way and most of the time we try and duck out of the way, occasionally getting hit in the process. But we heal in time and we carry on and sometimes just sometimes we are brave enough to pick up that dart and throw it back.

No more regrets, missed opportunities or what if. get out of your comfort zone and take a chance on life.