Thank God for Small Miracles

Yesterday I had a bad day.  I'm not saying it was because something tremendously horrible happened; it was all of the little things.  Howie died.  My sink stopped draining again.  I couldn't find the fabric I needed to finish an order and my son spilled blue kool-aid all over the carpet.

It just reminded me of my crazy luck.  For example:

I wrote about a Dog Lady.  She came to my house at midnight, claimed to have my dog and then left me with someone else's animal.  Well, after she came, our dog's been getting out.  No one knows how our back gate magically opens itself, but it's been happening.  It's actually quite scary if you think about someone opening your gates where your children used to play freely.



Well, now all of our gates are locked.  Cade wants to get a surveillance camera and set it up by our backyard; Grandma Gertie wants to show the Dog Lady her Billy Club;  and I wish I could slip her a pair of my brother's stinky socks!  It's really annoying when your dog keeps going missing, not to mention expensive.

The other peculair thing is that I see the Dog Lady all the time now.  She's always walking her millions of dogs past our house and whenever I'm outside she always strikes up some strange conversation with me.  "So how are you neighbor?" she said politely.

"Ummm . . . I'm okay."

"You know, about the other night?"

I nodded, wondering if she was about to apologize for sticking me with some mutt!

"It's crazy what can happen sometimes.  Fate is a funny thing."

Fate?  Did she just say fate when she should have said stupidity?

"I mean, I've been fired from four jobs.  They even took away my nursing license.  And none of those things were my fault."

That stumped me.  I cleared my throat and took the bait.  "Who's fault was it then?"

"Fate's.  Fate did it to me."


It was some strange reasoning that had brought her craziness to my house yet again!  I've only known one person who lost their nursing license and that was because she put milk into my son's only lung!  I went back into the house and slammed the door.  I'm not saying I hate the Dog Lady; it's just that she has a way of getting under my skin.  First off, she never apologized about the other night, then she's practically stalking me; Animal control thinks someone is letting our dog out.  Plus, that woman can't take responsibility for her own actions.

With all that in mind, I went back into my house and almost screamed.  I couldn't get Zeke off my mind.  The point is, before a nurse put milk into Zeke's lung, he was scheduled to come home with us.  But he never got to come home.  Instead he got pneumonia.  I guess it's okay now--it has to be.  It happened a long time ago and I know in my heart, it happened for a reason.  Sometimes though, no matter how hard you know things will be okay and they're meant to be, it's still hard wrapping your mind around the fact that pain exists.  Death exists.

Anyway, her whole "I got my nursing license taken away for no reason" bothered me.  Hell, maybe she was just like the nurse who put milk in my son's lung.  Maybe someone died because of her and now she can't apologize to me, let alone them!  As I walked into the house, I saw the sink which was nearly overflowing with water.  I thought of Howie who rested in peace.

My kids started screaming at me, and I cried then, full-on cried.  I'm a VERY happy person about 95% of the time, but when I get sad, it's to the point of depression.

I crumpled on the floor and bawled.  I don't know what exactly I cried about, but it was something about how I wish I could be closer to God like I used to be.  I sobbed about the stupid sink and how I feel like I have no control over my life.  I whined about that dumb fabric I couldn't find.  And after I'd finally finished crying, I felt this huge peace sweep over me.  I blinked and wiped my eyes.  Maybe everything would be okay.  Why was a sulking when I could be doing something about it?  I remembered Dog Lady--a woman who can't take responsibility for her own actions.  That's when I stood up, dusted myself off and decided to stop being a sap!

I put some water on to boil, sprayed Awesome on the blue stain and then called Comcast.  Can you believe the tech was actually nice enough to help me fix my computer.  I told him I'd gotten a virus and so I couldn't use my computer, let alone access the internet.  He stayed on the phone with me and walked me through all the steps to bring Howie back to life.  I restored him to a previous date and he's fine!  He's alive again.  After that, the water had started boiling, I poured it down the sink and put the garbage disposal on.  Can you believe the sink drained-- actually drained from the heat.  I couldn't believe how good a small miracle could feel.  Later I got the stain out of the carpet and even found the missing fabric.

So, the point is that Dog Lady taught me a lesson.  Sometimes life isn't easy, but it's how we react that matters.  Sure I could have stayed on the floor and felt bad for myself all day, but instead I did something about it and now things are better.   I never want to forget this joy of life or that I can always learn something new even if it is from some crazy Dog-lovin' woman.