about things and the way the world works, and why some things happen to others and not to us. That includes the good and bad in life, of course. Like for instance, my husband, who is a truly great person and an equally great employee has been laid off 4 times in the 12 years we've been together. Why? It's not for the quality of work he performs, he always gets glowing reviews, it's not for any tangible reason that we can distinguish. And, it is starting over every single time he gets laid off. We get some money built up while he's working, feeling pretty good with some stability and then WHAM! He gets laid off again, and we're back to square one as we go through the savings just to survive. He's been laid off since January and isn't having any luck with a new job. Not for lack of trying, let me tell you. We're both pretty tired out from the effort of making it work all the time. And now, we've got 4 mouths to feed instead of just our own. The pressure is tremendous.
I also wonder why, when things seem to go to hell, we're blessed with some pretty great things, too. Like for instance, we were in a bad way with the last house we rented. You all know the story, a river running through it for three solid months in the spring, the consequential mold and mildew issues that caused horrendous allergies in us all, and just a feeling of doom in that house and with few rentals in our town, not sure what to do. So, we waited out the lease. But in the midst of that, we were approached by our friends who had just purchased this little house, and asked if we were interested in renting it. It needs some work and TLC, but they are charging us less for rent then they could get from some other people, and we're very thankful. The timing of it all couldn't have been more perfect, honestly.
When it came time to move, we were low on funds, so no movers. Though we did have to do about 95% of it ourselves (and man, you don't know bone tired until you have to move so much stuff for days on end), we had the help of friends and my sister and her girls came to lend a hand as well. Our dear friend lent us the use of his trailer and our other friend that came to help Music Man move the heavy stuff had a trailer as well. We were able to move all of our stuff using those two trailers, so no truck rental. All angels for us in a time we really needed some help.
On the longest and final day of the move, Music Man's car died. Would not start, totally dead. I called the garage that usually works on our cars and the tow truck guy said he was down in Mass and would stop on his way up to NH. We had tried to jump the car with our mini van, to no avail. The tow truck guy drove up, had a little portable jump start machine and it started right up. Now, we know, a lot of other guys would have just towed it, causing us to not only pay the fee for the towing, but also the mechanics would have worked on it as well. They will usually charge a $50 fee for coming to the house, but he just looked at us and said, "I was never here". We thanked him profusely and I started to cry as I watch him pull down the driveway. Another angel for us, and he didn't have any idea what his kindness meant to a couple of bone tired, middle aged parents. Really, just angels.
My mother-in-law, who was laid up with a broken ankle took the kids for an afternoon for us allowing them some time away from the stress of it all. Angel in a cast.
And I honestly could not say enough thanks to our children. They were amazing the last day of the move. They literally played together for almost 14 hours straight while we moved stuff. And hardly fought. And didn't tease each other, and Maestro helped in whatever way he could by helping Little Red when he needed it. He earned his Perfect Big Brother award that day, my friends. They were golden and amazing and I will remember that for the rest of my days.
And the work my husband put into that whole experience. He amazes me with his abilities. He's not a big, burly guy (though, really, some sexy legs, but that's a whole 'nother blog :^), but when he sets his mind to accomplishing things, there's nothing he can't do. I am just amazed at how much he moved, sweated, worked and wore himself out for our family Heroes come in all shapes and sizes, and he's one for our little family unit for sure. I am never more in love with him then when I see him giving selflessly of himself for us. And he does it A LOT. Yes, a large portion of the stuff he moved was in fact his (he's a bit of a packrat, okay, a LOT of packrat), but I honestly feel that he's finally seeing that it is more baggage that he doesn't need to keep moving. And every time we move, he purges. He was able to donate about 8 boxes of books, and that's a big deal for him. He loves books, no...really loves books. When we moved from our first house, we left probably 1,000 books behind for the new owners (they wanted them, we're not inconsiderate or anything like that). I used to have lots of books, too. But, my moving into "less" and simplicity started about 7 years ago. I just had a shift in my consciousness that allowed me to let go of things. And I've never been very materialistic anyways. Perhaps it was growing up without a lot, but I have little need for extraneous things in life. I digress, I was talking about Music Man. And, so, it is with deep thanks in my heart that I realize he's seeing that there is less of a need for "things" that he holds onto for some deep seated need, to keep what he has. I'm truly happy and thankful for that because I don't want the weight of that baggage in my life either. Time for it to go.
We have a HUGE yard here that we have to mow ourselves. We weren't sure how that was going to happen. A friend of mine recently sold her home. With this, she has a bunch of stuff she didn't need any more as she's wanting to move into a condo where they will mow and shovel for her. She had a riding mower she was selling. Now, money here is really tight (you can hear the last scream out of that penny I had to stretch if you listen closely), enough so that I wasn't sure how we could buy the mower, but I told her we'd like to take a look at it. She sent me an email saying if we want it, it's ours. Out of the blue, she just said, I want to do this for you, let me do this, it will make me happy. I kid you not, my friends, I went into the bathroom at work and cried. That was a kindness that we so badly needed and for her to just offer that, no strings attached meant the absolute world to me. Selfless indeed, and another angel for our family.
Sometimes, it's in the darkest times that we are given the most precious gifts of love.
I see that now.
Blessings to you when you need them, ~Peacemom
1 comment:
Your rite! Angels do come in different sizes! You are so blessed that so many are around you.
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