Gaining Some Perspective

Today things have really not gone as planned.  Yesterday I was pretty sick, so this morning I decided to try out a yoga class at the Y as an alternative to running (though I'm not sure how being upside down was to help), but I didn't make it because I walked outside to find I forgot to replace my parking sticker (I don't like people in the sketchy areas I park to know where I live) and my car had been towed.  The amount of money it cost to get back was more than enough to bring back yesterday's ickiness.

Then I had a fight with Chris over basically nothing.

Then I finally put away laundry from earlier in the week to find another sock had blown enough stitches for a sizable hole.

Why am I getting this personal on the internet?  Well I'll tell you.  When I called my mother to cry on the phone and continue my pity party she didn't answer.  She didn't answer because she was at the memorial service.

The father of a family I spent a lot of time with as a kid died earlier this week from stage four pancreatic cancer.  I am unsure if his wife was able to attend the service because she was due to have a biopsy from a heart attack she suffered the day before she died.  Both are very young parents in reasonably good health with five kids close to the ages of my brother and sister.  It is one of those horrible situations that breaks your heart into a million pieces and all I can do is pray and hope that she received the shawl I sent to her last month.

I tell you this, not to make you sad or upset, but as a reminder of how much we really do have.  Last summer when my dad was in the hospital we did not know what would happen.  How fortunate am I that I live in a world where I could afford to buy nice yarn and designer patterns just so I could keep my hands busy.  One of the items I knit was the shawl that I mailed to Shelley last month.  How blessed am I that I have the ability and the resources to send something tangible across the state to bring someone a tiny piece of love in all of this sadness.

I tell you this, not to make you feel bad, but to maybe bring some perspective.  Though my problems seemed all consuming this morning, they are not the end of my world.  We were fortunate enough that we had not needed to use all of the money we were given for our wedding and it more than covered the cost of recovering my car.  Chris and I have many more dramatic fights in our future, but for now we have moved on to yelling at soccer (excuse me, footy) rather than each other.

And the sock?  Well, I still need to gain some perspective on that.  But at least I have this drying out on my porch.