"Poor Me-ness" service remedy

I was wallowing in my “poor me-ness” with the pressures that I feel  and the general “overwhelmedness” of dealing with all things for everyone today.  I keep trying to figure out ways to solve all things.  It is all fine and we are fine, but, I get myself carried away and worked up.  My perspective came when I went to take 72 year-old friend to run some errands. 

Every time I feel sad for myself, I get a different perspective: 

Her husband was in Vietnam, he called her once. It was a different time back then, so, letters every few weeks were the only form of communication.  She can’t remember how long he was in Vietnam.  She had three small children when he was gone. 

She lives off of her ex-husband’s pension and counts each penny.  She is simple and gets excited about the small things in life.  She lives in the same complex for almost 30 years and gets excited when the maintenance people do the smallest repair for her.  She hugs the children that live in her complex and she knows the name of every repair man and knows their life story.  She showed me the paint job that they did this last time and how much better it is than any other time they have come in to paint.  To me, it looked like white paint on an old wall. 

Right now, I am myopic.  There may be a time, maybe in 40 years, when someone will ask me about this year and I won’t remember things about it.  I won’t remember how I felt, I might not remember the details of the pressures I feel (after all, I thought I wouldn’t forget a moment of the cuteness of the first year of my children’s lives….and we all know how that turns out even 3 years later…).   I was shocked when my friend told me she didn't remember how long her husband had been gone-- I am counting the days right now.  The sting of the time apart my fade somewhat, but, the time apart will certainly be a landmark in our life. 

When I miss my husband, I am missing a good, kind faithful husband and a devoted father.  I need to spend time being grateful that I have such a high quality man in my life—even if he doesn’t live at my house, he is good and I am blessed.