Mamas, I wish I were able to calculate the staggering odds of what just happened to me!

It was a Sunday, I was in my comfy stretch pants, and about to go downstairs. I had a hodge podge of items to put away, and not enough arms to do it. The efficiency freak in me wanted it all done in one trip. This usually gets me in trouble, and today was no different.   As I contemplated how I would balance each item in my arms; picture the game Jenga.  I had forgotten one final item. What to do with my phone? I had no pockets in my comfy stretch pants.  So my genius self thought to put my phone in my elastic waistband. Once my phone was all snug and secure, I completed my Jenga assembly.

Next, I ventured downstairs and put away my items. Once the items were homed, I was ready to retrieve my phone. I pulled it out and my heart sank.  

While securely tucked in my waistband, my magic hipbone somehow opened my email icon, opened the junk folder, opened one of the junk emails, and then clicked the button to renew a membership that did not exist. 

Thankfully, that is where my magic hipbone stopped.  Never again could I replicate this random event!

As to be expected, there were negative consequences popping up from my one-in-a-million magic hipbone trick. I am now receiving a deluge of scam emails. It doesn’t matter if I block sender or send to my junk folder, or both! Like cockroaches these emails keep reappearing.  It is so relentless that I am nearing the point of shutting down the email address I have had for 30 years. (WOW, that makes me sound old).

This insane event has really got me thinking about unintended consequences. Whether accidental, intentional, or nefarious each action has consequences.  

Mamas, do I really need to have my phone tied to me 24/7? Was a 1-minute separation going to have a catastrophic consequence? Would that consequence really be worse than the annoying spam that now floods my inbox daily?  Somehow a seemingly benign phone obsession has pretty annoying unintended consequences?

Lets pretend time travel is possible so I can present my younger self the following options from that infamous night:

A.  Leave your phone upstairs unattended for 1 minute. Yes you will have to make two trips. Yes you run the risk of forgetting where you left your phone. And yes, since you keep your phone on vibrate it will take extra time to locate it.

OR

B. Spend the next several months blocking spam emails, eventually setting up a new email account, spending hours notifying friends, and updating businesses of your new email address. 

Mamas, if these options were presented to me before my now infamous magic hipbone night, which option do you think I would have chosen?

Since I can’t go back and undue what was done, I am left to deal with my unintended consequences. But what if we looked at this differently mamas… Humor me for a moment…. I have needed to update my email address for a very long time. It is 30 years old after all, and kinda embarrassing.  But I have never had the motivation to update it; especially knowing how much work it would take.  So some may conclude, being forced to update my email address now, is actually a blessing in disguise.

This is how I try to approach life mamas. There are many things life is going to throw at us, from the absolutely tragic, gut wrenching, how do I go on… all the way down to the annoying magic hipbone incidents.  No matter the incident, intentional, accidental or nefarious, they all require the same steps to recover and rebuild. How you view this restoration process makes all the difference.

Mamas, what can you do with your unintended consequences?