| I’m sure most you at this point have heard someone say something to the effect of “well, that wasn’t on the bingo card” meaning that something totally random and out of the blue happened to them. I’ll tell you, in a bit of transparency, we have been dealing with a pretty wild bingo card lately. In the last 4 weeks we have had a contractor steal a large sum of money from us and leave our house remodel in terrible condition (found out he was a big ole liar and much more), we’ve had our storage unit (2nd floor, indoor, climate controlled) leak and get a bunch of our stuff wet (the owner takes no responsibility and won’t help with anything, including just moving our stuff down the hall), we’ve had two dead batteries in very inopportune times, had another car in the shop, had another car get hit and damaged in a parking lot, had a dog have to go to the ER, got an unexpected fairly large tax bill from last year when we originally got a refund the year before, had a large and important piece of equipment break beyond repair at the brewery, had another piece act up when we needed it not to, had a job scare for Lici (it’s ok now), Lici had an uncle pass away, can’t get listings to move, have a bus we can’t start that we need this weekend, and I’m sure other stuff too. It seems like every single day one or two things goes wrong and adds 4-5 things to our to do list. But we have also had these things happen: I put out a request for some help with our house and 5 groups of people showed up to help. We went on a short trip for Lici’s birthday and had an incredible time with her best friends we don’t see often enough. We celebrated a dear friend’s 50th birthday. One son started high school and plays his first high school football game tonight. One son started post-secondary school (its a film school) today. The last son started baseball season and has excelled. The daughter started a theater class at CFTA and has found something she loves. We have grown closer in doing some things together–visited a beautiful waterfall, put up a wood ceiling in the carriage house together. I built a really cool box we will use for on location events at the Brewery. I got to drive my old car that I haven’t driven in 3-4 years. Lici and I have realized that with all the crap going on, our marriage is as solid as it has ever been. I have helped several families in real estate. So lots of things have gone right too. And we have heard other stories of tragedy way beyond our comprehension. We have lost friends and acquaintances. Life is a wild ride, people. For us, lately, it has been really easy to focus on the negative and the things going wrong. Doing so has made it really easy to lose sight of the things going right. Also, obsessing on the things going wrong makes it really hard to have compassion for people that have it rough too. We should always remember that the hardest thing someone is dealing with is the hardest thing THEY are dealing with. We should not compare the hardest thing we are dealing with to theirs. It is irrelevant. It doesn’t matter if our hardest thing is harder than theirs. That one thing is still THEIR hardest thing. And the reality is, everyone has hard things to deal with. Deal with yours with grace and composure and be open to listen to others vent on theirs. And don’t lose sight of the things going right. There is always a bright spot. Even if it is dim. Focus on that to get the energy to get through the darkness. If you ever need to talk, I am available. |
