Challenges Always Find Us
Not every hand we're dealt in life is easy
Back in April, during the week of my birthday I had COVID. I never would have known except for that I ended up losing my taste and smell. Two weeks of not being able to taste my food was torture. Anyone who knows me, knows my love for food.
This past week leading up to Father’s Day, my four-year old son ended up breaking his arm. After I told him I would go get his small bike to practice without training wheels, he decided to convince his sister to let him get on her big bike with no training wheels. By the time I got out in the grass it was too late.
As he and I sat in the emergency room together we took some funny pictures and looked at pictures on my phone until it died. We played rock, paper, scissors and I spy. As he was getting bored waiting for the doctor he asked, where is that dentist?
We laughed, we smiled. We made memories. We each had some fun during a challenging situation.
His bone will heal after six weeks of being in a cast. It was his left arm so he can still eat and write as he’s right handed. As a parent we always think how it could always have been worse. It wasn’t his leg so at least he can still walk on his own. At least he didn’t hit his head.
Did he learn his lesson? Odds are probably not. He’s just as daring and go-go 100 miles per hour as he always is. The fighting with his older sister has continued without missing a beat. And I’m just fine with that. Kids will be kids.
Do we as adults learn our lesson after certain challenges? Or do we have that childlike short term memory and resort back to our prior attitudes, habits and views?
Not everyday goes as we hope. Some days are down right tough and suck. It seems it’s one challenge after another. Will this darn day ever end? Well, what’s going to happen next? We’ve all had them.
We take the boring or uneventful days for granted. Some days we long to relive the boring and uneventful. When I had COVID, it was the not being able to taste and smell everyday like normal that I missed. Or prior to my son being able to do anything he wanted without help before having a cast from his bicep to wrist. Wishing for the past normal, instead of the challenges that came.
Normal to everyone differs. When challenges arise as they always do, we long for those previous minutes or hours when things were just normal, boring and uneventful. Don’t take for granted the normal, boring and uneventful times.
We face challenges almost everyday personally or professionally. Whether our fault or not, it doesn’t matter because once we face a challenge, it’s our reaction to it that determines our path to the outcome and the lessons learned.
“We cannot change the cards we are dealt, just how we play the hand.” Randy Pausch
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