A little perspective

It's been raining nonstop for a while here, and my neighborhood has started flooding. We live in the bottom of a valley, and my street is one of the major roads coming down off the hill, so it can turn into a real river. I spent this evening sandbagging our front door and garage.

Now, I usually gripe and complain when I have to go out in the rain and put heavy bags of sand up, making our house into a miniature fortress. But as I hunched over the sand pit with my shovel and a wet bag, I thought of the people in East Asia, people who had no warning, people for whom some foot high wall of sand would have been no security.

Perspective!!!

I stopped grumbling instantly. I think other families filling bags with me thought the same thing, because it was surprisingly quiet.

So what if a few inches of water seep into our house. Who cares if the carpet gets wet. At least we'll have a house in the morning! And our lives!