Lightening Fast
Two nights ago our house was hit by lightening...or at least lightening struck very, very close to us We're not quite sure which. After we heard and felt the loudest "BOOM" I have ever heard and leaped out of bed to shut off the elevator alarm and security alarm that immediately started blaring, I sat in bed with the comforter pulled up to my chin and my heart beating like mad!I told Jason, "I'm kind of freaked out right now!"
When we assessed the damage the next morning, we realized that it could have been much worse. Our house was still standing. No one was injured. But that lightening bolt still managed to create hidden havoc in the wires and cords that run through all of our lives these days.Our elevator repairman (Salvador - it means "to save" and that's what he does...saves us on a regular basis) stayed until after 7 pm trying without any luck to get the elevator working.Our computer-programming neighbor finally got the internet working again after a few hours of patiently trying every option.The home security guy replaced every contact to get our alarm up and running again.And in the meantime, wheelchair repairmen worked till 10 pm to fix a motor in Jason's chair that had gone out (unrelated to the lightening but unfortunate timing to say the least). Without having any luck, they are now following him home so that we can move Jason to his old wheelchair and they can take his current one with them to their shop. They are going to try and fix it while we are gone for a week in New York.We decided to deal with getting the Direct TV boxes working later.Just a few short days ago everything was normal....It's amazing what can happen lightening fast to change that. To throw a kink in our well-laid plans.So, what do we do when life goes awry? We can complain. We can cry. We can get angry. Although none of those things seem to make it better by any stretch of the imagination. Doing all of that often times doesn't even make me feel better. Mostly they just make me feel worse with the problems still hovering, waiting to be dealt with.I was lucky today. I didn't have a lot of places I had to go that couldn't wait till another day. I didn't have a huge to-do list that couldn't be rearranged to make room for service people to arrive. It was a little easier today to deal with a lightening bolt than it might have been some other day.But no matter the day, I want to remember that I have the choice of how I handle inconveniences and headaches and roadblocks. I get to decide how I will react to my circumstances - not the other way around.And we're lucky. We had many gifts given to us today - gifts of time and knowledge and hard work. I'm not sure how to express adequate thanks to those who have stepped up and pitched in so, I'll just say, "Thank you. Thanks for making an irritating and complicated day a little easier."And thanks to my neighbor who got me on the internet again so I could share this with you.