I've lost it.

...But I'm not the only one. In several conversations recently I have discovered that there are numerous people out there who are stressed from running life hard; perhaps too hard.
Today I decided to put together an object lesson for Seminary and to use in the workshop this Saturday. It involved a pan I was going to burn food onto in order to show the difficulty we can face when repenting and that ultimately, we cannot do it ourselves. No amount of elbow grease or solvents or scrubbies can make the pan like new again. It is only done through the power of the Atonement. The concept was a good one. Where I went wrong, though was in burning the pan myself.
I ended up with a stove fire that had flames rising almost past the fan hood and to the cupboards when I called 911! -I didn't check the smoke sooner because I wanted the pan to burn.
Now I am left with a pan that has burned off the food so it's no good for the illustration, a popped pool and burned finger from trying to take the pan outside, a scorch mark on the floor from dripping ash, a fan that no longer works, an unplugged stove with the top outside where the firefighters left it, and orders to call an appliance company to make sure the stove still works (I'm relatively sure it does. Nevertheless...)
So what is it that's lost? No, not my mind. It's BALANCE. Feeling pushed into running too fast in a single direction isn't a good feeling even if you pushed yourself. I wonder if I would have thought through this better had balance been around?
Probably not.