With a Little Help from My Friends

Despite my bad experience on my otherwise good trip, I'm going to remember the vacation fondly. Here is part of the reason: even though that situation was shitty, I feel like I have been walking around under an "umbrella of goodness" ever since. That probably sounds silly, but the best things have happened to me in the days since, I have met the nicest people, and my "current people" have been doing things -- small and large -- to let me know they care. Of course, most of the old and new people know nothing about what happened. It's just a nice coincidence. The most recent evidence of this is the nice man I met yesterday and am going to lunch with tomorrow and the kind and funny book rep who helped to get me set up with my classes.

Also, on the first day after I got back, while I was getting dressed for my class, my neighbor who had collected my mail texted me to say she was putting my mail at the doorstep. I apologized for not having come over earlier in the day to pick it up; she said it was fine, that she understood how crazy the first day after vacation could be. When I brought in the mail just before heading to my class, I saw a small shopping bag with layers of cushioning. When I looked inside, I saw a beautiful Asian tea set. I had been looking at it (for my son and his girlfriend) at my neighbor's yard sale last month; she remembered and brought it over for them. I asked her to let me pay her for it, but she said no way, that she was just happy someone would enjoy it and use it, which she never had.

The next day I received a beautiful thank you note from someone for whom I had done something nice several weeks ago. [By the way, I have been thinking of you and hope you are feeling better!] The note was so sweet and really let me know that my gift was appreciated. That may seem like a small thing, but it truly delighted me. In fact, I suppose individually all of these things could seem small; together they are amazing! Yesterday my aunt sent me a lovely note saying she was sorry my vacation had gone from so good to so ba. (that's not exactly what she said, but that's the upshot) and that she loved me very much and looks forward to seeing me soon. In the midst of all these wonderful things, I feel like the luckiest person ever.

I will end by doing what my son says is the pattern of my blog: Finish a loosely connected -- or sometimes more direct -- story with a fresh and happy perspective on the issue, the bright side. When he first described my blog that way, it didn't thrill me, but overall he's right (and at least he occasionally reads my blog and has stood in and written for me once or twice). And if that's what I do -- find a nice way to look at something or pull the good out of the overall situation -- I'm glad. The world is too bleak, and if in any small way I can make it brighter (even just for myself) I'm glad.