Perspective ...

After sending out my latest 3-Day e-mail blitz last night, I logged in this morning to see if anyone had made a contribution while I slept.

Nope.

But then a long-ago co-worker made an early-morning contribution (early-morning for her, living in L.A.), and then, later in the day, I got word that someone I'd worked with on a consulting project in DC a few years ago contributed, too. I surfed on over to my 3-Day page to see what he'd given - every contribution is like Christmas! - and clamped my hand over my mouth.

He'd given $300. In memory.

I jotted a quick e-mail to him, thanking him for his generosity. I was truly moved.

He replied to tell me the story of the woman in whose name he'd made his contribution.

Only it wasn't a woman, it was his niece.

And last year she lost her battle with cancer.

And she was 14.

What he wrote was so beautiful, about how she'd touched his life in the time that she was here.

I marvel at the messages I receive from the universe. Just when I'm wallowing and need to be yanked out of my own head, along comes a story like his to remind me that my "problems" are nothing of the sort in the grand scheme of things.

As he pointed out in his note, there is beauty in everything if we look for it from the right perspective. The yin and the yang. No light without darkness. No happiness without sadness. Gratitude instead of regret.

I'm sure the perspective will fade, and it will, unfortunately, take another similar story to restore it. But why, I wonder? Why is it so hard to take that beat and put circumstances into context and realize that our fires and emergencies aren't really such a big deal? Human nature, maybe. But I'll try to change.