Sand Bags & Bumpy Roads

Have you ever had a really bad day? What about a really bad week! I am not complaining because I expect there to be some bumps in the road, but last week it seemed like I was driving down a bumpy dirt road filled with cavernous craters just waiting to bounce me to bits.

Early last week I was at work when I got a frightened phone call from my wife. She had our sliding glass doors open to the beach when all of a sudden a rogue wave engulfed our patio and blew through our living room, kitchen and hallway, filling our home with saltwater, sand, and seaweed. When I rushed home I couldn’t believe the damage. Our heavy beach furniture was tossed through 30’ through the air and our big propane BBQ was knocked 20’ across the patio. It would take me days to clean up the mess.

Two days later I had to rush my wife to the ER due to breathing issues. The doctors at Mission Hospital were great (she has had multiple lung surgeries there) and after giving her breathing treatments and medicine for bronchitis, we were back home the same day, exhausted but glad to be home.

Three days after that I was with a customer in Fountain Valley when I got another scary phone call. My wife had taken a severe turn for the worse and was being taken by ambulance to Mission Hospital. I drove so fast I actually beat the ambulance to the hospital. After several hours and great care from a skilled pulmonologist, I was able to take her home once again.

Throughout the week I was also dealing with some really difficult issues at work. So all things considered it was a pretty rough week and I found myself getting more than just a little depressed.

So when the weekend came I decided I needed some exercise. I would kill two birds with one stone by building a “Sand Bag Seawall” to protect our beach from further erosion (and our home from becoming a swimming pool). I bought 20 concrete bricks to form a base and about 200 sand bags to build the seawall and then went to work filling them one by one. As I filled each bag I thought about both the good things and the bad things going on in my life. It dawned on me that there were a lot more good things than bad things, especially in the area of family and friends. The more I shoveled the more I thought about how many times in my life I have faced a difficult situation, only to have a friend step up to help me out. I realized I am incredibly blessed to have so many great friends and a thought occurred to me, “Why not let each sand bag represent a friend in my life, by placing that person’s name on each bag.” What a cool way to remind myself that building friendships is one of the best ways to smooth out the bumps in life.

 

             I haven’t completed the project yet because I still have 50 more sand bags to fill.

But once I’m done I’m going to write a name on each sand bag as a tribute to my awesome friends!

 

A true friend never gets in your way

unless you happen to be going down.

~ Arnold Glasow