False Alarms

I cleared the house, checked every room, and attempted to slow my pulse to a healthy level. Finding nothing, I laid back down, assured my wife, Susan, it was a false alarm, closed my eyes, and… "Fire! Fire!" It happened again!  

About the fourth time, after some deep breaths to keep my mind focused and a few chat GPT questions later, I discovered that this can happen when a detector is low on battery or has a malfunction. After locating what I determined was the culprit, I grabbed a ladder, ever so gently tore it out of the ceiling, disconnected the wires, and beat it until it could scream no more...well, not really. Carefully disconnecting it, I laid it aside to make sure the problem was solved, checked my emotions, and decided to deal with it in the morning.  

People with understanding control their anger; a hot temper shows great foolishness." (Proverbs 14:29)

While it would have felt good to smash the little devil into pieces, it would have just created a bigger mess to clean up and may not have solved the problem at all.  

Life is full of these little false alarms, loud surprising annoyances, and interruptions to our peace. Things (or people) that come out of nowhere and get our hearts pumping, emotions triggered, and cause confusion on how to resolve.  

Slow down, breathe, don't panic, allow your mind to seek understanding, and respond with calm. Or sometimes, don't respond at all if your only response is to smash the culprit into micro bits. Just find a way to stop the noise, ask for help or more information, and set it aside to deal with later when your blood pressure is at healthy levels.  

Allowing a hot temper to drive your actions typically leads to fires you can't so easily put out. Slow down, catch your breath, stay calm, and set it aside until you can produce a useful response. Most alarms are someone else's malfunction. Don't make it yours, too.

I can't wait to hear from the HOA on this one...