Excuses, excuses, excuses. Sometimes I am nothing but a bag of excuses.

Probably most notable are my excuses as to why I am always late.  

One I used to use when I was younger was the typical, “I overslept.” Truly, that was mostly in my younger days. Now that I am of a more mature age, I have become an early riser.

Another excuse I have been known to utter with intentions to exonerate myself from tardiness is solely blaming it on my genetics. Would that qualify as a double excuse?

My maternal grandmother Mary Helen would always dawdle before going anywhere and it seems I must have inherited this habit of piddling from her. I often times — Ok, nearly always, think I have time enough to vacuum one more room, fold that last load of clothes or clean out the dishwasher before I need to walk out the door. But, invariably, that has never been the case, which means I wind up being late.

There was, however, that one time when I was late, and it was truly just a mistake — I promise. I was looking at two wedding invitations and confused the ceremony times!

Excuses for being late are not the only times I find myself trying to justify my actions.

There are also those excuses I will conjure up to rationalize why I should or should not do something.

Have any of you found yourself in this predicament?

Take, for instance, it’s storming outside, raining cats and dogs and it’s Sunday morning — you get my drift.

I have often used the weather as a reason to dip out or just not show up at all.

Minor maladies have also been reasons to ditch a duty.

Making excuses for me are not just relegated to being late or engaging in affairs I don’t wish to attend. I also try to come up with justifications when I can’t make decisions or when I may be feeling fearful.

This process works a bit differently than gazing outside and assessing the weather.

In addressing indecisiveness, my brain first lays out the situation and goes through every possible scenario — good, bad or indifferent — that could or could not happen if I did or did not choose one or the other. Are you following me?

An example of this is when hubby asks me what I want for dinner. More times than not, I will give the excuse, “I’m not hungry, so I can’t decide.”

Making decisions that involve others is something I struggle with; therefore, I just throw out an excuse with the hopes of tossing the ball back into their court.

Fear drives excuses because we generally look for ways to explain away why we don’t want to engage or face something that would make us feel unsafe, whether physical or emotional.

I’ll admit there are probably better ways of coping than coming up with excuses, because certainly being honest with one’s self and others is preferred.

But life does not exist on a perfect axis and whether that’s an excuse or not, validating myself with an excuse every now and again will probably continue. And that’s no lie.

Terri Cowart Frazier writes features for The Vicksburg Post. She can be reached at terri.frazier@vicksburgpost.com.