(Note: Yes, I’m writing in continuation again. You’ll have to go all the way back to the “On Being Alive and Well" entry - about four entries back - if you want the whole story. Sorry! I’m trying to build up stamina for when I write my novel!)

Fortunately, this illness was nothing like the last one. It was more like a bad cold. It was just enough to make her a little clingy , and needing extra attention for Friday and Saturday. Forget about all the things on my list that we were going to do together. We could cuddle in the rocking chair all weekend, if that’s what she wanted. Bubbles and sidewalk chalk and parks and picnics could wait. Was I going to turn down a chance to snuggle? No way.

We rocked, and it gave me time to think about this crazy month.

It just seemed too coincidental that our daughter would just “happen” to get so crazy ill the same week that Mark “happened” to be fully across the nation, and that Peggy and Chip just “happened” to need us right when Mark got home and baby girl “happened” to be recovered so their kids could stay with us and our son didn’t “happen” to get sick until Peg and Chip decided to go ahead and take the kids home.

It just don’t happen like that.

I think – I know - well, I think I know that circumstances happen for a reason, and that in everything in there is a lesson to be learned.

So, now the hard part. Uncovering the lessons.

Probably most of the time in life we don’t learn our lessons because one, we’re not open to learning them, and two, even if we are open to learning them, we don’t take the time to reflect and find out what the lessons are. I mean, life does go by at the speed of light, at least in the child-rearing season.

The first lesson, for me, is to be more available to my friends who are single parents, and to make sure that they know I’m available – day or night. I only walked a week in the shoes of single parenting and while I thought each of you was incredible before...well, now I have new appreciation of what you go through. Single parents, you are amazing.

The obvious lesson is that by golly, we all need friends. (cue “Lean On Me” background music here) Good friends. Giving friends. You can pour all of your time and energy into your job, your hobbies, your on-line chat rooms (your on-line anything, for that matter), your television shows, but none of those things are going to be there to help you when your life gets crazy and you need someone to take your boy to baseball practice. You’ve got to invest the time it takes to build friendships. You’ve got to be willing to help other people in their times of need – which means, you need to be aware of other people and not just be living in your own little bubble.

A lesson that could be possible to miss is to make sure my spouse knows how much I appreciate him. I love, appreciate and pretty much adore him all the time (feel free to roll your eyes here), but having him gone reminded me of how much I appreciated him. Just his mere presence brings a measure of stability and calm to me and to our home. So I checked in with that one – yep, he knows, he feels loved and appreciated. (Guess I need to work on the adoring part).

Being thankful is another lesson that comes to mind. It’s the whole “you don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone” lesson. I’m not sure exactly why I needed a reminder on this one, since I really do practice thankfulness almost daily for our good health. But, apparently, I needed a little reminder!

So those are the obvious ones (did I miss any?). Now, onto the not so easy ones…asking for help, and dealing with control issues.