The cost of the real good stuff....

I realise it’s been a while since I’ve blogged but sometimes life gets in the way. That’s how I think of it.  It occurs to me though that saying that life gets in the way might be a really shortsighted way of looking at how we move through our time on this rock.  The last few weeks have involved lots of time in hospital for me, quite a lot of pain and discomfort, and not being at work which I hate as it means I’m letting people down.  However, it’s also involved meeting some really lovely people in the care professions, catching up with the lovely nursing staff on the clinical decisions unit at my local hospital, and seeing how fabulously well the lady who brings the drinks and meals has done at her slimming club since I last ended up on the ward.  How can I complain about that? Surely if I can change my perspective it can only help me feel happier? Accepting what has happened and being grateful for the good stuff has to help me. I’m not saying that I’m happy about feeling shitty (I’m sooo not) but there’s a balance to be found.

I’d be the first to admit that I’m not the best at keeping in touch with my friends – I think when you’re not able to dash around much and have limited stamina you can get very hesitant about committing to any appointments so you don’t let people down, and then you end up not seeing anyone.  When friends have busy lives too it gets doubly quiet! Having my little floating crafty life gives me the opportunity to “meet” people I might have otherwise missed out on, and a chance to feel like a regular person.  I love the way that we can share our love of all things crafty or all things floaty, and just accept each other for how we present ourselves online and be supportive without making demands on each other.  I wonder if there’s a way of bringing this kind of ethos into the real world? I think my husband’s already there though… He never expects anything of anyone but will still go out of his way to help.  It boils down to the “pay it forward” mentality which I love.  It can take little or no effort to make a huge difference.  The lady on the ward who remembers that I don’t take sugar in my tea made me feel like a special person, remembered from all the hundreds of people who pass through there.  And now I know her name and I can greet her with it next time I’m there and she’ll know that she was important enough to me that I remembered her.  It’s cost neither of us anything but it makes a difference.

While I was in hospital I had an email from a wonderful lady who had fallen in love with some of my jewellery creations.  She chatted and even sent me some lovely photos and although it took over an hour to use the new hospital touch screen system it made my day to read her email even if I couldn’t respond at that time.  Do you know for sure the circumstances of the people you communicate with regularly? Are they lonely? Are your chatty little notes that you think nothing of something that makes their day tolerable? Try and be aware of your impact. If you think “that was really nice of them” or “they did that really well” then SAY something.  Everyone wants to shout when they’re not happy but how many take the time to say thanks if everything was how they wanted it to be?

I came home and sent little emails to the lady who went out of her way at the restaurant I had lunch with Mr LFCC at on Sunday before  everything went pear-shaped as she’d gone out of her way to make sure there would be nothing in my lunch that I reacted to, the lady in the bead shop I go in to thank her for her support and advice leading up to my first craft fair a couple of weeks ago,  and posted  a little pressie to someone else.  It made me feel better and involved no drugs or therapy, and cost nothing. I think that’s a bit of a bargain!!