So…life isn’t fair. Of course, life isn’t fair! So what? Should that stop you from living a good life and getting what you deserve?
Like I said last week, over the last five years I have learned to remove the words and thoughts that life isn’t fair.
When my husband fell off of the roof and crushed his heel just two weeks after losing his job, I became the “everything” for the household. I remember the doctor’s words just like it was yesterday: “If he were a horse, we would shoot him right now and put him out of his misery. Since he isn’t, we will do surgery tomorrow and it will be six – nine months of recovery.”
My heart pounded with fear. Within minutes, my life changed. All because he decided to get on the roof and clean the gutters. How is this fair? Oh, and I did I say that we had just been told that our very first grandchild would be arriving within seven months, and because both our daughter and the baby’s dad were currently active duty military headed to Iraq, we would become her caretakers? “What in the world is God thinking, seriously,” I wondered?
Eleanor Roosevelt said, “A woman is like a tea bag; you never know how strong it is until it’s in hot water”. Well, I was boiling over and feeling like a body builder…strong and in charge and this is when my adjustment happened. Up until this point, I had always been an introvert and a motivated “follower.” I followed directions well. Now, however, I would be the person in charge, because I was too young to be a widow.
This is when I took a close look at my life and assessed my reality. Our three adult children were spread out all over the U.S. My parents were four hours away. Being a military family, we have never lived close to family. I didn’t have a “job,” I owned a business and had no staff. We were members of a church -– and this would be our “family” that we would lean on. But that didn’t happen either.
So, I started by counting my Blessings:
First — my husband is alive!
Second — my husband is alive!
Third — my husband was smart enough to sign up for the disability insurance for his company – we would still have an income.
Talk about relief!
As a side note to my story, always make sure you have a disability insurance policy in place. If you take away nothing else from this blog, have a disability insurance policy no matter what it takes. The very minimal monthly cost saved our butts. A savings account can quickly diminish, when doctor’s bills start coming in.
So…this is how I started to change my life. My husband’s accident made me realize that life is short and that every day we should focus on what we can do to make life better. One day at a time, without judgment or criticism for what gets done and what doesn’t get done. Most importantly, always be grateful because everything happens for a reason.
This is where we will pick up next week.
Read the first installment in Linda’s “Life Isn’t Fair” series: When Life Isn’t Fair
Linda’s previous columns:
Is Your ‘Things to Do’ List Going Nowhere?
Your Attitude Affects Your End Result
What is Your Messy Room Nightmare?
Weather or Not – It Happens!
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