Yesterday

Yesterday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day.

It began with a crisis at work that involved both personalities and issues, and was a cluster (to clean-quote youthspeak) of massive proportions. One of those crises in which someone else's mistake turned into my problem, but was all wound up with long-term ramifications for me and my staff. It was mentally and emotionally draining, and I got home at the end of the day feeling shell-shocked.

But nobody died.

Then I watched the very end of the U.S.-Belgium World Cup game. Our guys played so hard, with so much heart, and still lost. I turned off the television feeling sad.

But nobody died.

After supper I checked my e-mail and there was a message from my brother, who had just gotten home from vacation. He went to the doctor for a quick look to see why he had been coughing and short of breath, and without passing go or collecting $200 my brother ended up in the hospital being treated for a serious condition that no one had even suspected. I was beside myself with worry.

But nobody died.

I know that many, perhaps most, who visit this space do not share my religious convictions. I was raised going to church, though, and discovered as a teenager the reality that "this world is not my home, I'm only passing through." (Going to church and being religious are not the same thing, you know, but for me one followed the other.)

After I went to bed last night, shell-shocked and sad and worried, I turned my day over to the Creator, and trusted that the ups and downs in my life from the small (World Cup) to the enormous (brother) were in His hands.

I could do this because Somebody died.

All will be well.