l Let That One Slide

Last week Lent started and I was feeling very peaceful about it. I was going into the season with serenity and I was giving up on obsessing and worrying. Not the usual thing to give up, I know, but I am of no use to anyone if I am constantly obsessing over things. So out with the negativity. I would not worry about employment, the economy or whether we would or wouldn't buy a house. I wouldn't worry about the kids and be so rigid in their schedules and we would play more and do more together. I wouldn't worry about fitting it all in, my 401k, terrorism, health care reform, cancer and the fate of the world or the fact that I get a headache every time it rains. Because worry is negative energy and what good is all that negativity when I am supposed to be bettering myself and reflecting more?

Instead of worrying I would care and take care. I would try to have more patience. I would turn off the TV, the Facebook, the email, the phone. And I would read more and give more and make more and go-with-the-flow more. Do more with less. Just get back to basics to focus on what matters most.

Things were going swimmingly until yesterday. It started with the Dow tanking to 12-year lows, which induced my "we are most certainly in a depression and any day now we will be eating beans from a can cooked on an open fire while we wait in line for bread" hysteria, and ended with a ceiling that is falling apart because the upstairs radiator is leaking. No one seemed to notice until I brought part of the ceiling with me upstairs to ask "hey, have you noticed anything leaking? No? Here, maybe the ceiling that is in my hand will help jog your memory."

So the neighbor came down to see the water damage and when we showed her the leak, Harry, god love him, pointed to the ceiling and the plaster on the floor and said "SEE? LOOK AT THIS MESS!"

I normally don't condone such sauciness and, yes, I know we're supposed to love our neighbors as ourselves-especially if one is observing Lent-but the timing was so perfect (and adorable) I let it slide.