Don’t Try to Catch a Falling Knife

My father has given me a great deal of practical advice over the years but one of the big ones was “Don’t try to catch a falling knife.” My dad meant this I am sure literally, he is a butcher by profession after all. But over the past few weeks that piece of advice has been running through my head in a figurative sense.

When something is falling your instinct is to try to catch it. BUT as my dad drilled into me, when it comes to knives and other things that could hurt you, just let it fall, clean it throughly then get back to work.

I’ve been dropping a fair bit of figurative knives lately. Christmas was busy with houseguests, the girls at home for 3 weeks, an increasingly mobile Tiny Human #3 and general holiday pressure. I felt guilty I didn’t even post a Merry Christmas social media post let alone reach out to family and friends. December was a blur of getting the house ready, trying to keep some of our old Christmas traditions and making new ones.

Then January was getting the house put back together again, getting back into routine, finishing tasks at work and applying for positions here. Just when I felt like we were turning a corner, BAM. M fell breaking his wrist while taking the girls skating at a local outdoor rink. His attempt to give me a Sunday afternoon free of distractions ended up being quite painful for him.

Thankfully we have access to great medical care, he had surgery 24 hours after his fall and is slowly on the mend. But it has been challenging, especially for the first few weeks when he couldn’t really use his hand.

I am parenting, working, job hunting, trying not to watch the news and picking up the things M usually does around the house. Not to mention helping him with tasks he cannot do one handed. (Every week he can do a little bit more and he can now button up his shirts making mornings a bit less chaotic.)

All this to say, the tidy little division of responsibilities we had settled into has been uprooted. Our consumption of dish tabs has increased because I lack his ninja like patience to properly load the dishwasher.

So back to the knives, I don’t know if it is extra stress but I have suddenly started dropping things, the glass water jug, two jars of vanilla 😢 and knives.

One night in particular, I was rushing to cut an onion for dinner while feeding Tiny Human #3, listening to Tiny Human #2 describe her latest invention and timing Tiny Human #1’s piano practice when the knife slipped right out of my hand. I felt my brain fight my reflexes and the knife dropped to the ground.

I couldn’t help but laugh, life can feel overwhelming sometimes, family, finances, school, jobs, relationships, volunteer commitments. There are a lot of balls in the air or in this case knives on the counter and sometimes we drop a knife. When that happens we can try to catch it and probably cut ourselves or we can let it fall, pick it up, clean it off and get back to work. I hope that doesn’t sound too corny but it made me feel better to write it.