Grateful

I mentioned on Monday that my mother had two surgeries in June. During one of those surgeries, while I was in the surgical waiting room, I overheard a conversation between two other waiting family members. 

They were upset that their family member's surgery had been postponed to a later time in the day, necessitating that they spend a longer amount of time in the waiting room than they had planned for. They were from out of town, so when the surgery was complete, and the patient finished with recovery, they would get a late start on the drive back home.

They were not happy, and their unhappiness was very loud.

It made me think about the woman who was waiting for her surgery to start. I'm sure she was afraid and unhappy, and at the end of the day, when her family was home, she would have been through surgery and had to start recovery.

It seems like - even though I understand the impatience of the waiting family - that their day was not the worst it could have been. 

We do that sometimes, I think. We lose our empathy, and we live in our complaints. At the end of a Thursday in June, when I was dealing with the emergency surgery for one parent and the death of the another, I was still able to go home with my husband. We need to remember that living in our complaints can be crushing.  Where can you be grateful today?