Perspective

It changes everything. It changes nothing. Sometimes life is stupid. Sometimes things come at you fast and hard. When that happens, I am usually pretty effective in dealing, or bluffing depending on the situation. I have not been effective at either recently. I, to put it bluntly, am an emotional train wreck. Enough about me..let's talk about my life. The new job has created stress, my dad has been in the final stages of dementia for a year, medicare, getting everyone settled in school, strained family relationships, Kennedy recently diagnosed with ADD, hormones and fatigue all combined for some very tearful days.
Then we go to our regular, high class restaurant we go to every Wednesday. We like to call it Skyline. We have a waitress who has our table ready, our drinks waiting and coloring sheets for all the kids every week. She knows all our names and pronounces them correctly...even Ben's. She has told us stories and shown us pictures of her children. In short, we love her.
On my worst day of fighting with family, stressful work and the overall weight of my dad, we straggle into Skyline. I am depressed. Another waitress greets us and informs us our regular waitress, Angie, had a house fire. On my worst day I heard about her worst day. Her oldest son was killed. I am sorry Diana. She was burned trying to save him. I hug our kids tighter that night. She lost her house and her pets. I am no longer depressed. Perspective. It changed everything and changed nothing.
I usually try not to make myself feel better by looking at the misfortune of others. I feel sick when I am aware of that in myself or in others. But sometimes life plays out in ways that force you to compare. To reevaluate. To be thankful. To grieve. To rejoice.