I’ve noticed in recent months how often my foot snags on the hem of my underwear as I get dressed each day after my morning shower.

It can take me three attempts for my foot to find the sock hole or the shoe.

My typing skills have diminished so that I often hit the key to the left or right of the key I am aiming for when, a few years ago, I was a fluent speed typist.

I don’t feel concerned about my motor-neurone health, but the thought has fleetingly crossed my mind.

I think that my lack of precision is a sign of natural aging, perhaps a propensity to rush or perhaps that my underwear is too small!

The interesting thought process resulting from this lack of precision is my frustration with it.

I have a tendency to react inwardly when I begin to lurch to the left as my foot gets stuck in my underpants. I might even exclaim outwardly as I fear hitting the floor if I do not save myself in time.

A sense of angst as the words I form  in my mind, as I write my blog, appear in letters which are out of order or mis-spelled, to the point that I cannot recall what the actual word was that I had intended to type.

When I catch myself reacting negatively to my lack of precision, I have taught myself to smile, an inward smile.

Ah, it’s my friend that I call “slow-down”

Take your time, William;

Be more measured William;

Consider your response;

Be prepared to wait;

Think before you speak;

These are the virtues that my lack of precision has brought to me in my journey of self-development.

To acknowledge my  lack of precision is to be less reactive, to be less presumptuous, to be less judgmental and if my response to it, is an inward smile, then I am acknowledging how things are, rather than how I might want them to be, in this present moment.

My next blog will be: Paruresis 2

William Defoe