Keeping our Problems in Perspective Puts a Threshold on Our Troubles

Geez Louise.  I’d like to take a moment and praise the brilliant mind who created Calmine lotion.  The pink gook has probably preserved my sanity.  For over a week, I’ve had a horribly itchy rash thanks to poison oak - arms, face, legs, stomach.  Wheeeee.  To compound the misery, I have horrible allergies and they’re taking great exception to the whole thing.

Just a little advice - if you have outdoor pets that roam through fields and God only knows where, always wash your arms and hands after holding them.  Even if they show no signs of it (because their skin’s different than ours), they could have the oil from evil plants on them. 

When we pick them up and tell them how beautiful they are, how we love them, and coo the very wind out of them, we could unknowingly be sealing our fate.

And it itches like a mo fo.

I was much too smart to think of immediately washing my hands or arms after carrying my cats around and playing with them.  I also waxed brilliant by scratching the rash on my right arm so much that it got infected.  Such a clever girl.

A few nights ago, I heard some pretty dramatic words come spilling out of my mouth - “Oh, this is just hell.“  Fortunately, the only ears nearby were those of my two male cats, Bo and Svenn.  (The latter was actually the carrier…the cat carrier. Haha.)  As far as my boys know, poison oak is a legitimate form of hell, so they didn’t see anything wrong with me calling it that.  However, I know better.

So would prisoners of war, burn victims, cancer patients, grieving family members, amputees, etc.  I was an itchy, scratching, sneezing, mess but was it hell?  Hardly.

A few nights before, one of my daughters had told me about one of her friend’s mother.  She was, out of the blue, diagnosed with Bell’s Palsy.  She’d have a right to say the words I had no right to say.

It made me think about a lot of the things that come out of our mouths.  For example, when we say that someone is torturing us - that’s really a word we shouldn’t even consider using.  It should be saved for a much, much larger stage.  POWs could tell us all about the word, if we really wanted to know.  We don’t.

How about “I never catch any breaks?” - If someone lives in a free country, has a roof over their head, has at least one person who loves them, can see, hear, speak, and walk, are able to read and write, are healthy more often than they’re sick, and know where their next meal is coming from - they didn’t just catch more breaks than most people in the world - they’re blessed beyond reason.

We’ve got it so good, and have had it so good for so long that sometimes we forget just how good we’ve got it!

How about when we determine that life just isn’t fair.  If WE were to be fair, life doesn’t just randomly happen to us.  If I were given $2,000 and told to live off of it for two months and blew it all within one month - life didn’t step on my foot, I stepped on my own.  (I’ve got the bruised toes to prove it!)

More times than not - life isn’t unfair to us- it gives us, pretty much, what we ask for.

Whether we’re playing to an audience of one human, several humans, two cats, or just ourselves - we should keep a close watch on what comes out of our mouths.  We can make our negative situation(s) larger than they should be, smaller than they should be - or treat them just as they are:  Something that must be faced, dealt with, and endured.  Depending upon the situation, we should try to find the humor in it.  Several times, I’ve thought of myself as a super hero of sorts - a leopard with pink spots. Thing is, I haven’t any powers!

I am more thankful than I can say that poison oak is the nastiest thing in my life right now.   - The Pink Leopard

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