While at the pool I talk about the bad day I had last week, explaining why I have no car for three days due to my backing into a parked car.  Now, I can only think of the woman standing in front of me who lost her husband less than 2 months ago in a car accident, and how inconsequential my problem must sound to her.

Hot on Twitter this morning was news of a bad accident out in Al Khor.  Four nurses and the driver on their way to work from Doha, killed in a traffic accident.  Lives lost. Families broken.

Dear husband’s work acquaintance/friend  flew to Rome earlier in the week for a short holiday.  News came that his father passed suddenly. Change of plans. New flights booked.  No holiday in sight.

An email from a friend who I’ve been waiting to hear from for a couple of months. She had to travel back home, having learned her Mom was ill. She is. Very ill that is.  Stage 4 pancreatic cancer.  So she’s with her Mom “trying to bring as much peace into her life as she can”, she says.

Every day, every moment, there is loss, grief, tragedy, hardship.

If there is one area of my life where I am not sure of my character, where I’m not sure I am all that I could or should be, it is in helping others.  (Well, I’m sure there are many areas….)

I am working on it though.

In the meantime, I am thankful

• there are kind friends and family to support someone who loses her husband so suddenly.
• my husband makes it home safe and sound every day, after 2 hours journey on the road that took the lives of so many others today.
• I married the type of guy who will immediately pick up the phone and call a guy in Rome, to offer his caring and support.
• a Mom has the loving, calming presence of her daughter by her side when she’s in need.

I shall take this moment and offer my gratitude for all that is happening and all that is not happening, in my life. Those I cannot control and those I can.  And how I can learn from both.