A Reminder to Keep Perspective

It’s been an unlovely week at Dilovely’s house.

My son is sick – ear infection last week, cough that won’t go away, neon-yellow banana-flavoured antibiotics, resulting frequent diaper changes, occasional feverishness and not-so-occasional moodiness for him… worry for us. Of course we think he’ll be okay any day now… but altogether it’s been over two weeks so you start to wonder.

My husband is sick – almost a full week of bad congestion, coughing, fatigue, NyQuil, DayQuil, Buckley’s, Halls, etc. Neither of us can remember him having a flu this long before. Sleep has been somewhat difficult for all of us.

As you can imagine, I am religiously taking my vitamins and doing my nasal rinse, and Sean and I are trading off naps, struggling a bit to keep up with the everyday needs of life.

One might start thinking one has it rough. Luckily, there are always sources of perspective – sometimes glaring ones.

All you have to do is imagine being in north Japan at this moment, and suddenly it’s apparent how sweet life is right here, right now.

• My son and my husband are both alive – in fact, no-one I love has died in the last week, or even in 2011 so far.
• Our house is intact – it’s warm and dry and has hot running water, laundry facilities, and a full refrigerator.
• The water supply is safe, public transit is running, the library is open, businesses are ginning along – our town’s infrastructure is functioning as it should. (Well, some might argue with this, but… perspective, people!)
• My workplace is still there. Therefore, so’s my job.
• None of the things on my to-do list has to do with survival. (Find water, find family members, find shelter… I shudder just thinking of that.)
• My life is so luxurious that I can do something as frivolous and self-concerned as writing a blog post. Need I say more?

Let’s have some silence so I (and you, if you want) can think about this enormous good fortune – and its opposite, to keep perspective.

***