Stepping Stones

My brother called during dinner. Dad is out of surgery and in ICU, hopefully not for long. Everything went very well. He's good for at least another 20 years, I'm told.

This has been such a crazy month. Life always seems to go in cycles. Everything's great, then several avalanches hit you. For awhile there I got to experience the "could things be any more perfect?" side of life. It was great. I loved it. I reveled in it. I spent way too much time worrying about when it was all going to fall on my head!

Hopefully I'll get to feel like that again in the next few years, minus the worrying. But that's OK, because the difficult parts of life have served me well. Not least, they've taught me to appreciate the good when it happens in even small ways, like finding the clover yesterday.

I ran across the poem A Bag of Tools when I was in my late teens. The words, "And each must make -- Ere life is flown -- A stumbling block Or a stepping stone," had a huge impact on me. I realized that I could take everything bad that had happened to me, things that had been making me feel hopeless about my future, and use them to strengthen myself. I had the power to make those experiences my servants, instead of letting them master me.

So, I try to keep that in mind at times like this. Not that I like bad things, any more than anyone else (hence all the whining lately!) but I know that 1) they won't last, and 2) I'm not powerless. It helps. Besides, it could always be worse. Way worse. Thank goodness it's not worse!