Posted by Holly, but written by Sara:
Hey look, I'm not dead.
Lucky.
you. I am, however, in America. That's right--land of the free and home of the clean stores with miles and miles of products available for purchase, no haggling required. I think it may be heaven. Or not, since I sincerely hope that heaven isn't this cold and snowy. If it is, I may have to rethink some lifestyle choices and commence with the sinning.
Unfortunately I'm here because my grandma's health has gotten worse, and my husband and I decided that it would be better for me to come see her now than to wait for the funeral. I got here the day after Christmas, and have been spending my days at her house and my nights at Holly's. Girl has a seriously comfortable couch. I've also visited a few of those aforementioned stores. So many choices! I tell you, Americans don't know how good they have it. 73 billion different kinds of shampoo alone! And I'm pretty sure my kids' heads would explode if they could see the toy selection.
Today as I was driving over to my grandma's (thanks for the car,
Hol!), I think I had to stop at every red light in town. And apparently every red light is really long. So I did a lot of sitting at red lights. Guess what I don't like doing? Waiting. I am not a notoriously patient person, and driving seems to bring out the worst of it in me. But as I was sitting at perhaps the 4,563rd light of the day, it occurred to me how
flippin' great it is to drive in a country where there are actual laws that are both enforced and (usually) followed. As I was driving through an intersection it was nice to know that I had a reasonable expectation of not getting hit, and best of all it was nice to see everyone driving in their own lanes and waiting their turns to go. So instead of thinking about how annoying it was to have to wait for 6 years every 2.3 blocks (do you think maybe I have an exaggeration problem? No? Me neither), I tried to focus on being grateful that those lights exist. It made the drive much more pleasant. (Plus Holly's car is really old and makes a funny noise every time you turn the steering wheel sharply, and that was making me laugh)(what can I say? I'm easily entertained). Then when I got to my grandma's, she wasn't feeling so great and was especially not looking forward to going to the hospital for her radiation treatment, but she kept saying how great it was to be able to lift her arm, which she couldn't do before she started radiation because the cancer had gotten into the nerves in her shoulder and made it too painful to move.
Putting those two things together, it got me to thinking about how many different things there are that are annoying or difficult in life, but how somewhere there's something about them that we can be grateful for. Does anyone have any examples they'd like to share? Or something that may seem small but that makes your life a little easier or happier? Just now I was liking that the blogger sign-in page was in English and not Arabic, like it is in Egypt (I had to click on a lot of random links until I figured out the right one; this way is so much easier!), and clean air--both indoor and out--is something is short supply in Egypt that I am really enjoying here. The cold though? You can keep that.
P.S. Holly here--I am entirely responsible for the dumb picture and the even dumber title. I don't want to make Sara take the rap for that.
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