You have your health

I was reminded tonight that despite the moments where you are crying, frustrated, tired, stressed, desperate or at the end of your rope, that in the end, life is ok because “you have your health.” Something so little, so inconsequential in our day to day moments of slogging through work, interacting with family, friends or people on the metro – yet so comforting and paramount in the grand scheme of things.

I have my health. My parents are healthy. I have a job. I have a place to live. I have food to eat.

Sometimes, it takes a reminder of what the other person might be feeling, and not because you weren’t trying to be there for them, or weren’t trying to get to the bottom of what was bothering them, but because they didn’t say it and you only took their words for what they were, and were focusing on what your response was and how that made you feel – and you forget that there might be more to it, there might be something else hiding in there. Sometimes, it takes another person telling you all this, or in my case, two today, that made me realize, oh yeah, I guess that could be the reason for that reaction.

Sometimes, it’s not about us, even when we think it is.

Sometimes it takes seeing others in pain to make us forget all about our own troubles and realize that yes, life is hard and we have bad days and bad fights and bad moods, but that there are others who are worse off – they might be going through a divorce, just got laid off, or lost a loved one.

Sometimes it just takes a piece of chocolate, or a good laugh, or a hug, or a nap, or a talk with a friend and then things all shake out and life isn’t so dramatic anymore. And life goes on.

Sometimes I have to remember this every day. Every hour. Every minute.

I have my health.