Silver Lining

It's easy to complain.  I'm good at it.  In fact, I'll bet you're also good at it.  Everyone's good at it.  There's not a person I can think of who is bad at complaining.  It's one of those easy to dos, cross it off my list, give myself a pat on the back and call it a day because you have succeeded at the art of complaining.  In fact, I am a certified bona fide complainer.

But trying not to complain-- to take things as they are, to look to the silver lining and give gratitude for things we have instead of wishing for things we don't, now that is hard. Harder than hard.  Hardest.  Harder than hardest.  Near impossible.  Mission impossible.  No can do, no way jose.  Don't even think about it.

Our car got broken into while visiting Andy's sister last weekend.  Okay, let's be real - we left the door unlocked and now, we are without our GPS and a set of keys which had access to our home and two cars.  So now, wherever we go, whenever we leave or arrive, I turn to Andy and ask, "Did we lock our door?"  Normally, he might roll his eyes at my paranoia, but now, he focuses... ponders and if he's unsure, one of us goes off to make sure it's locked.  Better safe than sorry.  Wish we thought of that before....

Our car got a flat tire this past weekend, also while visiting Andy's sister (yes, we're still here two weeks later and it's been a blast!).  I hate flat tires.  My fear for driving longer than 30 minutes on unfamiliar freeways is due mainly to the likelihood of getting a flat tire, followed by gang bangers shining their brights and coming after me for gang initiation, and of course, the crazy psycho whois probably stalking me from afar and will open my doors and come into my car while I'm at a stoplight (hence my doors are always locked) and threaten me with a real gun.  Paranoid much?

But the silver lining is... our car's most expensive item... our awesome Urbo stroller (market value $500, price to us: free courtesy of my mom's friends who manufacture Urbos in China) did not get stolen.  Jordan's bjorn, his new attachable seat for restaurants, his carseat, and my Camelback, also did not get stolen.  We did not get a flat tire while I drove back alone at 5 AM from SFO to Tammy's on the newly downloaded GPS app from the iPhone.

There is always a silver lining.  And, with everything that happens in this life... sometimes we're just not privy to the bigger picture until later.  Yeah, I am still confident the same perpetrator who broke into our car and took our valuables left a nail in my tire, but until I can prove it and catch the thief... I am so grateful that my baby stuff was safe, that I made it home safely, and that I was at Tammy's where we took her car instead of mine, hence we found the tire when it was super flat instead of driving on it.

Silver lining.

Always.