Monday, February 1, 2010

Don't Sweat the Small Stuff!

     Well, We're all moved in!  It was a long stressful process, but we made it through and we're finally settling in.  We hit a lot of bumps along the way and I found myself getting very frustrated and being overwhelmingly irritable...not a nice person to be around.  When I look back now on all the little things that bothered me during this adventure which at the time seemed unbearable, I am ashamed and embarrassed!

     While returning home from a rode trip to Connecticut, we stopped off for a bite to eat at McDonalds.  We were nearly finished our lunch when a little old lady who was sitting next to us struck up a conversation.  I might add that this lady was not eating lunch like everyone else, but merely sitting at the table beside us for no apparent reason, but seemingly to tell us her story...

     This woman was Jewish and told us how she was in the Auswich concentration camps when she was just 18 years old.  She told us how she watched her entire family die in the gas chambers.  She went on to say how she was the very next girl in line to be gassed herself, when for some reason that she still doesn't know to this day, she was pulled out of line by a guard and saved.  She was put to work cleaning up and caring for all the people with Typhoid.  She later found out that same guard was killed the next day for saving her.  As we finished up our lunch, we said our goodbyes to this incredible woman and were left with such an amazing feeling.
  
     This little encounter definitely put things into perspective and made all those little things that I was freaking out over seem so trivial.  Is my life really that bad?  Can you imagine being next in line to die?

Check out this article referencing a book called Don't Sweat The Small Stuff When So Much Else Matters. www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/02/19/dont_sweat_the_small_stuff_when_so_much_else_matters/ and the song The Good Stuff by Kenny Chesney. www.youtube.com/watch?v=IYQZJ9NUzYU
  
     In closing, I'd like to share a couple quotes that are so perfect for when you may feel like those little things are outrageously huge...

"Things turn out best for the people who make the best of the way things turn out." -Art Linkletter

"Only those who have the patience to do simple things perfectly will acquire the skill to do difficult things easily." -Johann Schiller