Burnt eggs cannot be redeemed

We had some morning excitement at the Figgins Compound. I had put some eggs on to boil and then returned back to my office to work on some really important stuff. I have some huge opportunities later today and I keep thinking of things to add to make it shinier and sexier. I have some big stuff cooking.

As usual in my cooking escapades as well as other aspects of my life, more time had passed than I had realized. At first I noticed the odd sulphurous smell. Then I saw the billowing black smoke. I knew exactly what I had done.

Not only had I left the pot unattended but now all the water had boiled out and those eggs were burning in the bottom of that dry pot.

I raced upstairs and slid across the kitchen floor in my sock feet to try and remove the charred remains of the pot before it ignited only to have to duck as the eggs literally exploded all over the kitchen. I turned on the fans, opened the doors, and frantically waved a towel over the smoke detector to avoid waking my kids.

There’s the obvious lesson that usually happens in most of my time in the kitchen.

I’m not good at multi-tasking.

I think that I can bake a cake while talking on the phone and helping with homework. I think I can fry chicken, not get burned while fixing my hair, wash the dishes, and watch kids outside. Or typically I get something started upstairs on the stove, and run down stairs to answer a few last emails, tweet about my life, and unjam the printer.

But I think I can apply this lesson to a lot of different areas of life. Lots of things may look like they’re getting done but they aren’t going to get done well. It’s the law of nature. Something will suffer. Some aspect will appear sloppy, or unorganized, or some detail unattended to. If I’m not paying attention to the important task at hand, whether it’s cooking, caring for my kids, creating content, listening to my friends, connecting with my husband, effectively sharing my mission the result can be burnt eggs. If I’m not present for the here and now, the fact that I have something really big cooking later on will meaning nothing. There will be  nothing to be saved.

There’s no redeeming quality of a burnt egg.

What pot needs your full attention today? What’s about to boil over that you need to be attending to? Do you have any recipes for burnt eggs? How about any solutions for getting the smell of burnt eggs out of your house? 🙂 Live blessed today.