Perspective

I have had many lessons in perspective over my life, but many more have made themselves evident since I have started paying attention to them. We attempted a foolish trip this past weekend, we tried to go to visit my wifes parents, in western pa. We got on the road early on Friday, thinking we might get there before the roads got bad. We succeeded in getting halfway there before the storm truly hit. The roads got bad fast, and to our credit, we stopped being dumb just in time. We stopped in Somerset and hunkered down for the night in a hotel, fully expecting everything to be cleared up early the next day and to finish our trip. Well, 33 inches of snow fell in Somerset, and we were stranded there for the weekend. What did we do? Well, our daughter made a friend, and they played most of the time, we visited with the new friends mom, and others at the hotel, and pretty much had a great time.

Just when we were focusing on how things were not what we had expected, my wife realized she had misplaced her wallet. We had walked though the snow down to a fast food place to get something quick to eat, and it turns out she left it there. The good news is, we got it back, and that had a very nice effect in reminding us it could always be worse. It's funny how that happens.

Life often gives us little reminders that things that go wrong, could have gone a lot more wrong, and we ought be happy with where things ended up, even if it's not always where we set our sights on when we started. The first step to being depressed is focusing on that first negative thought. It really is that simple, and it's taken me many years to figure that out. Hopefully I don't find a way to forget that simple lesson any time soon.

F2PH