Unprepared

I am unprepared, when I wake just before the alarm even goes off, having slept either too much, or not nearly enough.
 
I am unprepared, when I leave the house for school drop-offs and work, having made everyone's lunch but my own.
 
I am unprepared, when the grocery where I go to rectify this situation seems to have only high-sodium or high-calorie or overly virtuous no-taste solutions.
 
I am unprepared, when the train that always comes doesn't come, and I have to make the choice of what train to take and how far to walk.
 
I am unprepared, when the day I seemed to be racing into seems to come to a screeching halt, and then become so busy that it is over before I know it.
 
I am unprepared, when I head home in time for dinner, and bedtime, and all the things that recently I've not been home so much for.
 
There are days when we face the world feeling as though we have prepared all our lives to do so. And there are days, like this one, that can make us wonder whether we have lived in the world at all. The challenge is making it through on those days when we feel completely unprepared--making the right choices, when it feels impossible to do so, bouncing back from change, when it feels hard to bounce at all, adjusting to avoid, or embrace, things we just weren't prepared to handle.
 
Today, I felt unprepared at every turn. Yet, I made it to the end, mostly in one piece. So maybe, just maybe, I was more prepared than I thought.