How has your June and July been? I'd have to say that this Summer has held some unexpected twists and turns for our family. The country that I live in has a leader who has questionable morals and whose actions clearly do not hold care or concern for the people of his country. As he takes our country further and further down roads that lead to destruction people suffer. This has meant some suffering for our family but on a very small scale compared to many.
Along this vein we have been trying to think of ways to afford soaring prices of, well, everything. So we thought we would rent out a vehicle that we owned. We took time and effort to prepare that vehicle in the best possible ways so that it would feel enjoyable, clean, safe etc for anyone who rented it. Long story short, an hour and a half into its first rental journey it broke down. It was also in another country at that time and it was a holiday weekend. The amount of effort, stress, anxiety and hope that had been invested into that first rental experience was quite vast. We have felt stuck and undone at the result of the experience. That door was firmly closed and ended up costing us so much money. We are a ways through the situation now but we are still feeling the effects and our vehicle is not usable at the moment. That was a very unexpected disappointment.
The next weekend after that fiasco I had asked my husband to hang some pictures for me in a precarious spot above our stairs. It took time and effort to unearth the frames, choose and get pictures printed for them, figure out the layout, and then for my husband to figure out how to hang them all. As he was in the beginning process of this the ladder he was on collapsed. He fell to the floor with his knee caught in the ladder rungs. He broke his arm and tore something in his knee. My health has been poor in some respects and he has had to be more of a support at home than usual. With a broken arm and hurt leg he could not offer that same level of support. We both hobble around looking very careworn and elderly and our children have not been able to have the care and support they need as we physically cannot offer it!
There are always ALWAYS silver linings in some respects in situations like this. For example, if the vehicle scenario had turned out positive then it was rented out for a majority of the summer. My husband would not have been able to maintain it like he was required to and I would not have been able to either. The vehicle breaking down was a blessing?
Also, my husband booked no time off work this Summer and his job is very demanding. With his injuries, he has not missed a full day of work but he has come home early and taken time to rest to attempt to heal. This has been necessary for his mental and physical health and in a way then the injuries have been a reminder of what his body really needed.
A happy and also unexpected part of our Summer was that before his injury he put up a pool that was given to us last year. We had thought we would not set it up but because of my health we knew the children would be home all summer with not a lot to do. This pool has been a sort of lifeline. The weather has been very hot and our house is very hot and the pool offers glorious reprieve and pockets of joy on long hot days when I can't do much more than lie in bed.
Another happy Summer happening is that my middle daughter has been able to spend extended time with people she values and it has brought her much joy. She has not had to be here all day every day with not a lot to do. I am thankful for that for her.
And so the lists of both negatives and positives continue. Time marches on and Summer 2023 is what it is.
I hope your Summer or whatever season you are in is what you need it to be but if it is not ~ well, such is life isn't it? The unexpected heartbreak, the anxiety or the unknowns, the accidents and the turns in the road that lead to disaster. May you continue to keep on. May you find moments of illumination in your darkest hours and may you know in your deepest parts that you are loved and not forgotten.
xo
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