I thought I was imagining something when I first heard the water, but then I felt it. A little drip that quickly turned into a gush. Within minutes it sounded like a river was flowing down from our washing machine (on the second floor). Water pouring out of the mudroom ceiling and quickly covering the tile floor. At first Dan and I just stared at the water yelling four letter words – as if they would somehow seal the the pipe. “We need to turn off the $%^&ing water!” finally got me to move.

I ran to the basement and my socks told me that the water had already found its way downstairs. I remembered a contractor once showing me where the water shut off valve was, but with the sound of water it was hard to concentrate and there are a whole lot of valves in that front utility closet. It took me a few minutes, but finally I held my breath and turned the blue valve. Instantly, I heard the sound start to taper off.

I always though there should be a rule that if one part of your life is complicated that everything else should fall into place. Unfortunately, life doesn’t work that way. Life can give you more than you can handle. Bad things happen to good people. And, I really can’t imagine there is some “great plan” that includes diseases like ALD and pipes bursting.

That’s my truth. Life is hard and not always fair. I’m jealous of my friends and family who believe otherwise, and have I’ve tried to adopt their faith, but I tend to go back to the “life (nature) is often cruel“ approach to life. But don’t think that my reality means that I walk around the world assuming or expecting the worst. My approach actually allows me not to take things personally or spend much time asking WHY. It’s just life. Sometimes we get dealt a bad hand, sometimes a winner. I try to do the right thing because it seems to stack the odds better for people around me. And, I surround myself with people who do the same. I also try to really appreciate the good times and not take things too seriously.

After our water crisis, Dan and I took a few minutes to feel sorry for ourselves (we may have even revisited some four letter words), but the conversation quickly turned to “how lucky we were that we were home” and “how much worse it could have been” and “thank goodness for good insurance”. We spent a few hours pulling up carpeting, drying off walls and setting up dehumidifiers. The plumbers finally came, were able to isolated the broken pipe and restored the water to the rest of the house. They apologized as they explained that it would be a few days before they could do the repair work (century old homes and 10 degree temperatures are great for the plumbing business). They also said that we should call our insurance company, “I’m really sorry, but this might get complicated.” Dan and I just looked at each other and smiled.

When you have lived through truly horrible days you recognize a simple, run of the mill, crappy day for what it is. Friday was just a crappy day.

Love, Jess