Silver Linings

do you believe in them?  believe that even when “bad”, difficult,  unhappy and uncomfortable things happen to us, there is always some good to be found??  i do believe that.  in fact, the more of life i see, the more strongly i believe it.  and while i am not always successful and some days are better than others, i do make an attempt to live my life based on this idea.  no, i wouldn’t wish this whole flood experience on anyone and while the upheaval, inconvenience and expense are still very real, i’m now at the point where i want to focus on the good parts and the lessons…. you know, the silver linings. 

going through some sort of difficulty seems to have a way of reminding us just how good we have it.  what we went through is a mere blip on the radar screen compared to what so many others are dealing with.  in australia and brazil for instance.  and in many other places.  this kind of thing and much worse happens to lots of folks that have no money.  or available resources for help.  or time to deal with it.   or friends.  we are soooo incredibly grateful for all of those things.  we are healthy.  we are together.  we (still!) live in a house that we love.  and we are stronger.

although we never would have done it now, it was probably time to consider new carpeting.  why carpet, you ask?  well, several reasons, but the biggest one?  call me old-fashioned, but i still like the feel of carpet under my toes.  it’s COZY and boy, did i miss it while walking around on ugly cement on the coldest winter days.  the old carpet was here when we moved in.   now it’s all new and clean and pretty.  oh, and we also have new baseboards, lots of new paint and a new bed!

 it’s a great (and totally backward!) way to get the house cleaned and organized.  when everything has to be moved, you tend to think twice about if you really need it.  i got rid of tons of stuff.  had great success with selling on craigslist and i’m pretty sure our local goodwill store thinks they have hit the jackpot!  i’m now in the process of putting things back and making sure they are clean and in the right places.  love being organized - it’s a good feeling.

oh, it’s great way to lose weight!  no, i wasn’t trying, but all that bending, lifting, carrying and dragging gave me a pretty good excuse not to go to the gym.  feel like i’m in pretty good shape!

our next challenge is re-working the backyard so something like this can never happen again.  after we unpack.  yup -always something!  that's what makes life interesting. 

so here's to silver linings - may we all be able to find them.  always.