perspective

It's all about perspective.

Really, it is. That came to me a couple days ago after a bad conversation with my dad, who is basically abandoning my family for the holidays to be with his girlfriend. Granted, my family hasn't been "normal" for years, so it wasn't a surprise. But even though my parents are divorced, we've at least always done the holidays together. And it used to be fun, until now.

Anyway, I got off the phone with my dad, tearing up and not feeling good at all about how my life has turned out because my family is a wreck, when I got an email from a friend in reply to me asking how her weekend was. Well, she hurt her foot, missed a concert she wanted to go to due to traffic, and lost her credit card. Oh, did I mention that her car is now missing/stolen? Yeah. It didn't take long for that perspective to kick in.

Then, of course, my thoughts went to all the other people in my life that have it worse than I do. I've mentioned a few of them more than once on here.. cancer, going off to war, living in desolate circumstances, etc. What does it even mean to call my life "troubled"? Sometimes I get caught up in a whole lot of self-pity. Sometimes I really believe I deserve to feel that way. But most times I need a great big reality check and have to face facts: that while my life is a little complicated, it's nothing compared to other people who are truly suffering.

I needed that reminder yesterday.