I started to write this article a few days ago, but then I had to check my email and walk the dogs and rate articles on Helium. It was when I checked my personal stars and ratings, and saw I had lost my one and only writing star. again, (It flashes on and off a like turn signal on a car. Yes, No, Yes, No.) that I knew it was time to act and not delay writing the article any longer. Perhaps this one would hang that star again.

Procrastination is one of the areas of my life in which I excel and well I should. I come from a long line of procrastinators. This would lead one to believe, it could be an inherent quality passed on in my genes or from growing up in an environment with procrastinating parents. I don't mean to speak disparagingly of my parents. It's not like they made sure I had lessons in procrastination like learning to play the piano or gymnastics. It was more like osmosis. I digested it in my everyday life and it became a part of me. Whatever the source, of my procrastination, it is a war within myself, I engage in daily. I win battles, but it doesn't change anything, sort of like Vietnam or Iraq.

Procrastination has led me to become a legend in my own time regarding tardiness. I'm like the white rabbit in the Disney movie, Alice in Wonderland. "I'm late; I'm late for a very important date. No time to say hello, goodbye, I'm late, I'm late, I'm late." I almost always start getting ready with time to spare. It's just that I get sidetracked and fail to allow for contingency situations which always seem to pop up. Suddenly, I realize, I should have left fifteen minutes or a half hour earlier. You know that old saying; you'll be late for your own funeral. Well, that would be me. "Sorry, Lord, this happened and then that happened and I had to take care of whatever and by then I was late. It really wasn't my fault."

I'm like the woman in the television commercial advertising some sort of quick fix meals. She is standing by a pond feeding the ducks, when a grandfather clock sneaks up on her and pushes her in the water. Of course, the idea is you can still prepare dinner on time if you use fix-it-quick. I would rather spend time feeding the ducks, taking time to smell the flowers and thinking about the novel that I'm working on then cook dinner, unless of course someone like the president was going to be my guest. Then I probably couldn't decide what to cook and would end up having carry-out Chinese or pizza delivered.

I've discovered that

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