The Things We Take For Granted

Colorado sunsets – here’s hoping I never take them for granted

Ever think about the things you Are lucky enough to have? Not usually. We tend to think about the things we’re working towards, or striving for or saving for. Sometimes, we think about the things we wished we had. But what usually slays me is how I’m not ever thankful for something until I don’t have it anymore.

Take last week for example. Two of my friends and I headed up to the mountains for the weekend. I woke up one morning and my right eye was freaking out. It was trying to stay shut, watered enough to fill a small glass and overall hurt like hell. This has happened a time or two since moving to Colorado since the air is so much drier – I even switched to daily contacts to ease the craziness. Which – would have worked had I ACTUALLY changed them every day. Or didn’t sleep in them. But, half of America sleeps in their contacts, right? So what’s the big deal? (This is solely based on my opinion, not facts of course.)

So I dealt with it like I normally do. Frantically search everywhere for re-wetting drops, put a cool cloth on my eye, the usual. It eventually cleared up and I was ok. It was a little scratchy the next day but not too bad. Until I went home on Sunday. Then the thing was in such pain I just took out my contacts and went to sleep. Monday was a mess. It got red, painful and watery throughout the day til one of my employees begged me to call the eye doctor. I did and was able to get an appointment the next morning.

Now, imagine this. You live a good 40 minutes away from your job, you need to drive home and your eye is freaking out and in pain. What do you do? Pray really hard, put your sunglasses on top of your regular glasses and attempt to drive home. Staying in the slow lane so you have to do the minimal amount of lane changes. While trying to stop your eye from watering and running down your face. With two sets of glasses on, driving directly into the sun glare. Get the picture yet? It stunk. And honestly, I felt so alone. (In hindsight, I should have took an Uber home.)

But, thankfully I was able to get home and practically kissed the pavement while thanking God I got home safely.

The next part of the story involves ice packs, lots of water, sleep, and a trip to the eye doctor to find out I had an eye abrasion. All loads of fun, let me tell you. Then prescriptions, lots of blurriness, trying to read email and work, and healing.

It took a good week before I started to feel better – and thank God, it is completely healed now. And I have a fresh batch of contact lenses waiting to be picked up. So I can change them everyday. (Someone may need to do an accountability check on me in a few weeks do make sure I’m still being “daily” about this. Lol)

The craziest thing about this whole experience? When I went to the eye doctor, squinting and favoring my eye, guess how she made it feel better? She stuck another contact in there. It was the strangest thing. Guess it acted like a band aid cause it immediately felt better.

Thinking of what we take for granted came up last week when my cousin posted about how they have to go through an intense cleaning process in order to eat produce in overseas where they are currently living. We tend to not think about how others live or have to do daily tasks differently, just because they are in a different situation than we are.

I have a deeper respect for people with eye issues or even blindness after this past experience. It was horrible. I work 10+ hours a day and more than eight of those hours are in front of computer screens. Not being able to see correctly out of one eye and try to read was brutal. But I only had to deal with it for one week. I can’t even imagine what people have to deal with going through life without being able to see properly.

So I guess the thought of the week is to be thankful for what you have and be mindful of those who are lacking those things. Whether tangible or intangible, our struggles are definitely our own, but sometimes it helps to view them through the lens of those less fortunate.

If you have a spouse, hug them. If you have children, squeeze them a little tighter. If you have health, thank God for it. And if you’re still sleeping in your contacts, take them out!