A Stitch in Time Saves Nine

I have always understood this maxim to hold best when it comes to Parenting. If we acquaint our children at an early age of the difference between the right and the wrong, we might just end up suffering a lot of heartaches and anxiety later. Procrastination is never the solution to any problem. If there is an issue that needs to be dealt with, it is best done immediately so that it does pile up into something bigger later.

Initially used as a French Proverb in the early 1700's, it was a part of naval terminology wherein it referred to the last stitch that was dealt to encase the shroud and a dead body together. Later on it passed on the English lexicon to refer to immediate action to something that warrants attention, else it may spiral out of control.

Most time in life whether due to laziness or carelessness we do not pay attention to small details which later eyeballs into something bigger, involving more effort, money and time . Things like keeping our papers and documents in order so that we might find them in hour of need is something we all are guilty of, at one point of time or another. A small story shall illustrate it better.

My husband has always been very punctilious about keeping the documents oi order in our household while I, on my part have always been very lax about this essential component. As a result of which I spend precious hours looking for a documents whenever called for.

Life would have gone on at the same stream had an unfortunate incident not knocked some better sense in my head. It was in the days that my husband was posted abroad and my son and I were the only two people at home. On elate night, there was a fire alarm which kept ringing in our apartment and it was a call for us to vacate the premises immediately. All I could think of at that unearthly hours was to take some cash, which I did, the keys, which I l located and the important documents related to insurance and identification without which everything would be a mess. True to my husband’s forewarning, much as I frantically tossed and turned the dresser,I could not find all the related papers since they were scattered and not filed at one place, for emergency purpose.

As the alarm kept on buzzing furiously and I had my toddler son’s safety to think of, I gave up searching for them and ran down the stairs, in tears,apprehending the amount of mess that awaited me. God must have heard my fervent prayers for there was no harm done that night and the situation was quickly brought under control.

It is not surprising that the first  thing I ever did, on reaching my house , after thanking the almighty, was to organised those papers and put them in an emergency bag for the last minute run.

This proverb so well applies when it comes to studies, when it comes to work, when it comes to relationship sand health matters that there is simply no alternative for timely action.

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