Everybody's Got Stuff

I went to lampwork class tonight after debating with myself about whether or not to go. It's been an emotional week. The anniversary of my dad's death is approaching this week, which is always hard. On Monday, I found out a family friend has incurable abdominal cancer. Tuesday I realized my older cat, Carly, wasn't quite herself and by Wednesday, had to take her to the vet. She got to come home last night while they waited for the test results but based on the diagnosis of kidney disease, she had to go back in today, probably until Saturday, so they can give her IV fluids to rehydrate her and antibiotics and special food and hopefully make her feel better. Apparently this type of disease is common for older cats (she is 17) and manageable, although not curable.

I decided to go, because I find that working on the torch tends to calm my mind. It is almost meditative, because you really have to focus on what you are doing in order to get the beads to turn out reasonably round and, oh yeah, make sure you don't set anything on fire.

When I got to class, there were only 3 of us there tonight, Dwyn the teacher, myself and another student, Debbie. Dwyn started by telling us how she has been dealing with her sick dog, Abby, all week, as she developed a sudden problem with a disc in her back, temporarily lost the use of her back legs and ended up having surgery this week. So the two of us were commiserating with each other about vet costs and treatments options and how we worry about our beloved, aging furballs.

Then Debbie told us about her boss, who is going to be off work for the next 4 or 5 months battling a brain tumour. Whoa! Reality check. It appears to be treatable and I certainly hope so, both for her sake and the sake of her 6 year old child. But it really made me realize - most of the time, we've all got stuff going on and while it tends to be like comparing apples and oranges, there's usually somebody out there with worse stuff than yours.

Hopefully, for most of us, it's temporary stuff, possibly painful and expensive and generally worrisome and time consuming but if we're lucky, eventually things get sorted out and in the long term, you're left to fret about the credit card bills while cuddling a warm, furry, happy pet. For others, it's more serious stuff, the kind that leaves you lying awake at night wondering what is going to happen and who is going to look after you or your child or your pet if things get really bad, or wondering why bad things happen or wishing families didn't have to take that long trip along the Highway of Heroes. My heart goes out to those people.

Just for tonight though, I'm going to be selfish and thank my lucky stars that my situation isn't that bad. Then I'll say a prayer for all of us.