Sometimes, it seems like one thing after another. Other times, just one thing seems like too much. This could have been too much, if I had let it.
Last week, I opened our hall closet door, underneath the stairwell, to get a jacket for my daughter. A strong odor assaulted me. Oh no. I knew this was bad. It smelled like mold.
Removing the coats and jackets so I could see better, I turned on the light, but still couldn’t make out what the problem was. I bent down to touch the carpet – soaked. Yikes! As I moved things aside, I looked up, and there was the culprit: a dripping fire sprinkler. What in the world was a fire sprinkler doing inside of a hall closet, I have no idea, but there it was dribbling over everything. Who knows how long it had been going on.
The next couple of hours were spent rapidly grabbing things and hauling them out the front door onto the walkway outside. My husband arrived home and was immediately enlisted. Boxes were soaked on the bottom with mold growing up them. Some contents had to be junked right away. I was helping to carry things back and forth in one hand while making calls to water restoration companies in the other.
In the past, I may have panicked as I contemplated both the loss of sentimental items and the cost of what it will take to clean out the mold and do the repairs. I might have freaked out about the possibility of health problems from the mold.
But I didn’t. I was, for the most part, calm and focused. What needs to be done? Let’s do it. Deal with the situation. Contemplate later.
As I looked at the ruined items, I knew I was OK. Things come and go. Yeah, I’ll miss them. But they were part of my past, anyway.
I knew that the most important things I still had – my family, the love between us, my health. Not to mention that it could have been a lot worse.
Yes, it’s really just a small disaster. It’s a week later, and most of the repairs are done. Most of the damaged goods were swept away by the garbage truck. A few things remain to be dealt with, but all in all, it wasn’t so bad. I saved myself a lot of stress and anguish by accepting it and flowing with it.
Small disasters make me grateful. I think of the victims of the tsunamis, earthquakes, hurricanes over the last few years. This is just a drop in the ocean. We are very fortunate.
I look at my daughter, my husband. I wrap my warm, soft blanket around me in bed. There’s so much to be grateful for. I trust that we’re taken care of, that everything we need to repair and clean up is there.
Thank you, God, for a small disaster. It reminds me of all the blessings we have.
