It’s just another Tuesday morning… I was walking to work. I’ve been taking the Metra these days, since the school drop off routine is not in play. After I get off at Union Station, I walk past the Sears Tower (yes, we still call it that); I walk past the Sears Tower multiple times per day. Not many tourists in the AM, but in the PM… a lot of people walking around, looking up at its beauty. Today I looked up too, and why not? Why can’t we appreciate things that we see every day? I do, so I thought about writing this.
Every day should be appreciation day. I know we all have our struggles day in and day out; we all have our challenges on our plate. Nobody can really understand what you are going through except you. I get it. That still doesn’t change the fact that we should appreciate all that we do have; that doesn’t change the fact that no matter how bad you have it, somebody is going through it worse. We see examples of this on a daily basis, sometimes, we get personal reminders. It’s because of this, that I downplay many of my “problems”. I’m complaining about this? Really? Nah, it’s OK. I also am a believer that God doesn’t give us anything we can’t handle; it may feel like it sometimes, but… you know, the people that can handle the most, get the most.
I was a timer at my son’s swim meet on Sunday. Thankfully, there were no swimmers in my lane when my son’s event came up; he was in the lane right next to mine. Thus, I got to totally focus on his 50M freestyle swim to the other side of the pool; he was part of a relay; they won 5th place. Before his race started though, there was one particular event; I believe it was the 100M girl’s backstroke. When I looked next to our lane, there was girl standing there with one arm and one leg; I thought… wow. Look at the hand she was dealt, and here she is… swimming competitively; she did pretty damn good too. Good for her. Do people realize how lucky they have it just having four functioning limbs???
I got a call on Monday morning, from one of my folks on the East Coast; she told me she lost her brother. He was 53 years old; shit, I’ll be 47 next month… that’s only 6 years away. Of course, he passed way too young, at least that’s what I think when I heard his age. Unfortunately, we don’t have a whole lot of control when our number is called. I don’t know the details of his life, the decisions he had made, but I do know that I want to live a lot longer than 53 years old. I do know my parents are about to both be 75. I do know that I have a brother… and sister for that matter. I’ve seen a handful of family members pass away this year. Who’s next?
Then I see the report about LeBron James’ son. For all the shit I talk about him, I feel for him today big time; I don’t ever want to receive that phone call. My son plays basketball… the last thing you ever want to hear is something like that about your child. I can’t even imagine; I don’t want to imagine. OK not going to talk about this any more…
So yeah, I ended up in Church on Tuesday afternoon. Had a few stops to make, and stopped in for mass. I said Thank You. I prayed for my loved ones. I always ask God to give me strength to handle whatever comes my way. We just watched Bruce Almighty the other day with my son; first time I had seen that movie in a while. Is God hearing me? I’m not asking to win the lotto, but I do think I’m a rich man, so, yeah…
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