Don't Sweat the Small Stuff

Mondays apparently being my father's day for calling with big surprises, this Monday he called to tell me that he has become engaged to the lady he has been stepping out with for coming up to a year. OK, so it wasn't a surprise, but it was, if you see what I mean.

I am so very happy for him, and am joyful that he has had the incredible good fortune to find another person whom he loves and who loves him, who is willing to share his life permanently. Another bite at the cherry of happiness is to be snatched at, then cherished and celebrated: a lesson which most of us only learn after being forced to confront our mortality - as it was for us after my mother's death, drummed in by my sister's ongoing tango with Behcet's Syndrome (I've had at least two phone calls saying 'get to the ICU now'), my father's brush with cancer, and triple cardiac bypass.


This is perhaps some of the reason why I am perhaps more lax than I should be about my children's attendance at school, housework, and lack of money: given my great good luck in my own life - like The Fool, I always land on my feet, even if there is a bit of a stumble - I give thanks every day for what I have been given: love, children, family, friends, happiness, health, opportunities.



I wish my father everything of the very best in his new adventure.