Bittersweet

Sometimes, after the best of times, bad things just happen.  Know what I mean?

We just spent a wonderful nine days away, visiting our son, daughter-in-law and grandson.  We had a wonderful trip down to sunny Florida - no problems with the car or weather or traffic...then a week full of fun times with the family.  We played outdoors, hiked in the woods and along the sound, watched Barrett play at Parents' Day Out, went to the zoo, out to several good restaurants, to the beach.  We played and read and watched funny old episodes of The Muppets on YouTube...we took walks, picked up acorns and "cones" (magnolia seed pods), grilled out, played puzzles and with the choochoo, danced and sang, chased each other, laughed and laughed.  We went to church and to a meet-and-greet, with snacks, afterwards.

Yes, it was an altogether great week.  We left happy and had a good trip home. When we were almost home, I said, "I hope we don't have any fires to put out when we get home."  Famous last words...should have kept my thoughts to myself!

As we pulled into our driveway, we immediately noticed a job-gone-wrong on the homefront.  We had had workmen there while we were gone (probably not a good idea, in hindsight), and that didn't settle too well.  Then, when we opened the door from the garage into the kitchen, we were greeted by a foul odor...and I mean FOUL.  Somehow, the ground fault switch had tripped, and the refrigerator was out...not the power in the house, just the refrigerator.  So, for the second time in four months, we had to throw out every single thing from our refrigerator and freezer.  NOT good.  By the time we got the mess cleaned up, it was 9:30, and we had had no dinner, nor had we unpacked.  It did not make for happy campers on the part of John and me.  Just put us in a really grumpy mood and made us wish to be back with all the fun in Florida.

Isn't that just like life sometimes?  We go from the highest high to a pretty low low in no time flat.  John pulled me out of my temporary funk by saying, "Noone is sick or hurt or in the hospital.  It's going to be ok.  But what a pain, huh?"  Very true.  I can't say that we got back to our usual happy selves immediately; as a matter of fact, it got worse the next morning when I discovered even more of a mess with the job-gone-wrong.  It was worse than we noticed at first, in the dark.  Even John, who rarely gets mad, was pretty upset.  It just looked like the molehill was quickly turning into a mountain.  Oddly, I had a funeral to attend, and being with old friends from childhood, in the church of my childhood, and hearing the sermon and eulogy and scripture and hymns, pulled me back into the right attitude.  Later, we had a fun evening with good friends on a boatride at the lake...followed by being treated to dinner out by those sweet people.  It was good and needed and appreciated.

So...today, we made a few phone calls, said our say, and then went outside to work out our frustrations in the yard.  John sowed grass seed and strawed his "project."  And I planted flowers and weeded and cleaned up my flower beds.  It was good therapy, and we felt so much better for the exercise.  After a good shower and lunch out, we were ready to go to the grocery store and restock the now-clean but empty 'fridge.  That accomplished, we sat on the screen porch and read and relaxed and then fixed a good healthy supper.

Yes, it's bittersweet to spend a perfectly wonderful week with wonderful people and an adorable child...only to come home to a bunch of problems.  But circumstances helped to redirect our attention from our problems to our blessings.  God, as usual, played a big part in this as He lined up people and events and "coincidences" to help us through these frustrations and bring us back to a happier place.  It was actually good to be humbled and to realize how these were temporary inconveniences and not really worth all the energy and anger we felt and expressed. 

Yes, bittersweet happens...and then it's back to looking up and out and forward...a good lesson learned, once again.  It's a hard lesson for some of us slow-to-learn folks...but oh, so important when we want to follow Jesus and do what He would do.  Thank you for this good lesson.  May we learn it well this time and not so easily be brought down again by the bitter in bittersweet.