A SENSE OF PLACE...and loss

How often have you heard someone say, “My best ideas come when I’m in the shower”? Well I am prepare to tell you that it is true, good ideas often come when our attention is diverted to more mundane issues, like getting the water temperature just right. Let me explain.

Recent pounding, unrelenting rain found its way through our defective roof once again, threatening to flood our delightful guest room. I was sitting in my study when I heard the dreadful sound…dripping through the ceiling onto the floor, and the bed. If you could measure the state of emotional well being the same way we measure blood pressure, mine would have been too low to register. I hate water dripping into my home; it depresses me. Knowing the rain would be with us for at least two more days I dutifully set out the pans and buckets to collect the water, and spent the rest of the day, and night, trying to ward off the deepening funk that settled over me. Judging by my state of mind this morning I was not very successful. I moved through my usual routine, breakfast, coffee, reading the news, and writing in my journal, with little enthusiasm. Even Bin Laden’s death couldn't’t help me, and I could muster no enthusiasm for my pasta quest, which was to begin today. Then I got in the shower and everything changed.

I have often described myself (usually tongue in cheek) as a tiger when confronted with adversity. But there is part of me that really believes in this, and as the warm water is running down my face it suddenly occurs to me…how ridiculous I am. I imagine myself dealing with life’s worse adversities, and yet get thrown into a funk because my roof leaks!!! Not so far from here people have lost their homes, and in some instances their lives, and I’m freaking out over some water getting into our guest room. So silly, and so obvious, yet it took an Ah Ha moment for me to see it. Some tiger I turned out to be, and as I re-assessed my tigerness my mood immediately improved.

Of course, being the great ruminator that I am, the next step was to examine why the compromised roof was so devastating to me, which leads to the title of this post...