Reflections From a Country Girl

Faith Hill sings a country song called The Lucky One.  In it she talks about the things in life that are rough – no air conditioning, not being as far along as she would like to be at age 27, not enough money for a even a bus ticket, no cable tv, but she is still “the lucky one” cause she has that special someone in her life.”

I’ve thought about those lyrics the last few months.  

There’s lots of reasons we should consider ourselves the lucky ones. 

My sister’s house was struck by lightening last week.  At the time, she and her husband were sitting upstairs in their frog room watching television.  Dave, her son, was in their room on the other end of the house talking to his girlfriend on the cellphone when lightening hit near a tree at the deck off that bedroom, slashed through the irrigation system, blew part of that deck off, and explosively attacked the electrical outlets in the house…frying three phones, a computer, the air conditioning system and blowing the irrigation control panel off the wall in the garage. 

Fortunately, all those things could be fixed.  Everyone was ok.  

They were the lucky ones. In a town nearby, a house was burned to the ground after being hit by lightening. 

Floods are consuming much of the midwest. Earthquakes are destroying thousands of miles of land in China. Homes are being swept away or buried in the ground.  People are being displaced. Wars are raging in the Middle East.  People are shot in our own country on a daily basis. Others are ill and fighting for their lives through chemo and other treatments. Lives are changing forever.  

So where are you right now?  But for the grace of God we all could be in those situations. 

My friend, Chris, is struggling with cancer.  He’s a fighter and his doctors are doing all they can to give him all the life he has left to live.  His family is right there with him.  His wife is a trooper and his children and grandchildren rally around as often as possible.  As I look at them struggle with this, I am reminded that they are the lucky ones to have each other for as long as they can.  He was in this same place struggling with cancer some 19 years ago and beat it to live cancer free for another 17 years.  They consider themselves the lucky one to have survived cancer for this long.  Who among us would understand that if you haven’t lived through it.  Lucky ones?  You bet.  

I was at a wedding in Ohio recently.  Friends of my late husbands and now mine even after all these years after his death, these folks have continued to embrace our friendship.  They graciously included me in their daughter’s wedding plans.  They even invited me to sit with the family on that day of joyous celebration. I was honored.  I was touched when hearing and seeing the positive environment there.  I thought to myself several times, this is what a family should be like and how proud my husband would have been to see that family grow into who they have become. 

 Life, I can attest to from personal experience, will not always be pain free.  But for right now, it looks pretty good to me where I sit. In fact, even in the darkest times, I have been very fortunate to be surrounded by those that love and care for me.  

So think about it.  Aren’t we the lucky ones?  Aren’t you?

My wish for you today is that you embrace your good fortune in all that surrounds you and reach out to share your kindnesses and compassion with others.  After all, we’re all in this together. 

~ Joellen

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2008 at 5:38:am and is filed under Death, Faith, Friendship, Health, illness, Living Life to the Fullest, Releationships - general, The Joy of Serving Others. 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.