It's easy to get lost in your own little pity party when you live here. Then again, if you're reading this blog that's not exactly a shocker. But sometimes something crosses your path and you find yourself saying "There, but for the grace of God..."
And if it comes flying at you from across the street, you really notice it.
I was walking the dogs Sunday morning. It was early and the sun was just coming up. There wasn't a soul around as we ventured down one of the streets near our house, when suddenly something came flying across the street at us. It landed about 20 feet ahead and I couldn't tell what it was. But a few moments later, another one came whizzing across the street, and this time it landed close enough to see that it was...
A snail.
WTF?
I scanned across the street to see where they were coming from, and that's when I spied a woman out in her yard. The house was kind of shabby and the front yard was nondescript and unkept. But dead center in the lawn was a huge rose bush that was bursting with blooms. And bent over it, with her back to us, was a middle aged woman who was picking snails off the roses and furiously hurling them over her shoulder into the street.
She obviously didn't know we were there, so I cleared my throat to announce our presence so she could adjust her aim. It seemed to take her by surprise and she turned to face us. I expected she'd apologize for winging the snail in our direction, but instead, she just nodded at the rose bush and said...
"It's the only beautiful thing in my life, and it's being attacked by snails."
She sounded so sad it almost broke my heart.
And with that, she turned and shuffled back into her house, head down, defeated.
For the rest of the walk I get trying to imagine what tragedy had befallen this poor woman that the only thing in life she had to going for her were her roses, and now they were under siege. It got me to thinking how lucky we really are. Although we aren't where we'd like to be in our lives right now, we have each other, and the dogs and a warm loving home. We appear to have weathered the worst of the downturn and things seem to be looking up. For all the bitching and moaning, things could certainly be worse.
As much as I may think my life sucks day to day, at least I'm not picking snails off it.
