Growing Into You

 

My family and I were sitting at a Denny’s on Easter night, trying to wind down from a long week. It has become a lot harder for Liz and I to go out to eat since the addition of our daughter, Peyton. She tends to be content in her car seat all the way up until the time we receive our food. Then she tends to feel ignored and decides she wants to come out and play. Is it frustrating? Sure, but would I want it any other way? No way.

While we were eating, I could not help but notice a family of three sitting in the table right behind us. They kept looking at me, and I noticed a sense of sadness on Easter Day. These people seemed very nice. When we walked by, they smiled at me. When our waiter brought out a piece of ham that looked like it had been drug across the floor, the man saw it, laughed, and then told his family about it.

When their waiter came back to give the family their check, they began to talk. I could not help but overhear their conversation (Yes, I am a people watcher, but I am not nosy! ) The family began to tell him how they were visiting Bloomington for the weekend. He asked, “What are you guys doing away from home on Easter?…visiting your family? Their response really brought life into perspective.

“Well,” said the father, “we got flooded out of our home.”

“Oh, so when do you get to move back in?” asked the waiter.

“Actually, never. We were in the floods in Southern Indiana, and it took everything from us.”

The waiter went silent. You could tell he was searching for the right words, but there was nothing he could say that would help their situation. I, personally, was trying to think about the right thing to say to them, but I had no idea what they were going through. Nothing terribly tragic has ever happened in my life, I could not fathom losing EVERYTHING I owned in a matter of minutes.

Then, out of nowhere, the man in the family said, “You know, this week has been hard, but I have come to the realization that all of it is just stuff.”

I could not imagine being in their situation and being sane. When I got home though, I began to think about it. I realized that yes, bad things in life can happen, but as long as you have your family and your health, everything else is replaceable. It may make life a lot more inconvenient, but it will go on.

I went home that day and really thought about my life and how lucky I truly am. I have a great family, we have a roof over our head, and we have the means to put food on our table. We have all the essentials we need, anything else is just extra. Seeing somebody that has just lost all of their material possessions really puts it all in perspective for me.

So after hearing this man’s story, I thought I would pass along his wisdom. Always remember, “It’s just stuff!”

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This entry was posted on Friday, March 28th, 2008 at 12:42 am and is filed under Self-Improvement. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.