Unexpected

I had been planning to write today about cotton mattresses here in Egypt. It's an interesting subject to some degree. And it's all new information for me, so maybe it will be new for some of you as well, though older folks reading this will probably be more familiar with the subject.

In any case, the mattresses will wait for another day I guess as there is something else on my mind.

I was sitting after finishing lunch, talking with my mother in law. My sister in law is usually with us for lunch, but today it was just my MIL and FIL and myself, and after eating, my father in law left.

My MIL started talking about a woman that she knows, and this woman's family and situation. This woman's mother is dead. Her father is ill. She has 3 brothers and 1 sister, some of which live on the family farm, and one of which lives out of the country. The woman, she does not make a huge amount of money, but she sends money home for her sick father, while none of her brothers or sister gives any money. They are all pretty poor. In describing the situation, I imagine myself in that place and all I could think was alhamdulillah for what I have.

Often times, if you are upset about something not going your way, you will hear people say that you should be grateful for what you have, and to think of all those poor unfortunate people in the world who have so little and are in bad life situations.

Well, that's all great and everything, but more often than not, I feel so far removed from those unfortunate people and their situations, that I can't even begin to relate, and if I can't relate, then how can I take anything from their life and apply it in mine?

I mean, thank God for the fortunes in my life, I don't want to sound ungrateful at all. I know that I have a lot more than many people in this world. I just generally have a hard time feeling anything other than my own "injustices".

Maybe it means I'm selfish, I'm not really sure. I mean, I certainly feel for other people, I am empathetic to a fault (ask my hubby about that!!! lol) but it somehow doesn't stop what amounts to my righteous indignation over things not going my way.

I don't know why, but my MIL talking about the woman she knows this afternoon, it really knocked me down.
In a good way.
And was totally unexpected.
I have been so busy being upset about things not going my way that I had lost sight of some more important things in life.
That doesn't mean I'm not still irritated with things, lol, but I definitely feel a little more level headed, at least for now.


Hubby says the bathroom is done in the apartment. I haven't been to the apartment since they were painting paint samples on the walls. I would really like to see how things are looking. No idea when I will get to go over and see it. Still no word on the mattresses. And I would like to leave the mattresses to air out for a day before we sleep on them. Someone was saying they spray them with all kinds of fire retardant chemicals and they off-gas from the materials that they are made of. Yuck.

No other news.
Oh.
I have some video to upload of a wedding party that happened across the street the other night. You can't really see anything, and the reason I took the video was just for the audio portion. I'll try to upload those tomorrow.