Well Nancy, this is what I think it means :

If you are grateful for whatever comes along -- even what hurts -- the hurt will never last. It will fill you up to overflowing and if you are really, truly grateful the hurt will last about 90 seconds.

I guess the way I would interpret it…and it is so weird because my latest post is really about this quote…is that there is two ways of looking at things and if you can truly believe that there is a reason for everything that happens, then you can be grateful for the lessons we learn from it. You know that "game" people play where they say "if you could go back and do one thing different, what would it be?" Well, even thought there are a lot of things in my past that have sucked, I wouldn't change anything because then I wouldn't be where I am today, meaning I am grateful for that which has hurt me…I think.

Good timing for this post Nancy! Yesterday I surrendered and paid some help out with some cleaning hours. I have known her as a neighbourhood friend for 2 years now and realized that despite her WAY bigger problems, SHE NEVER COMPLAINS. It was humbling and a the smack in the face I needed.

I have often had to remind myself of an Italian saying: Tutti i nodi, vengono al pettine.
All knots eventually come to the comb.

What defines our experiences in life is how deal with the stuff of life. We can patiently detangle them if we catch them early enough or we don't have the tools to untangle them at this time. Sometimes have to cut the knot out because the knot has simply grown too large. But a knot is always a knot.

Mold abatement dragged us into renovation and triggered an avalance of organizing that went from the eaves troughs to the foundation. The more I looked, the more problems we found.

Does it matter that we watched repeatedly as many things went wrong, that the previous owner hid damage, that even many recent repairs to the house before this reno all had to be fixed now? WHO CARES THAT SHODDY WORK IS ALMOST A STANDARD THESE DAYS? That depends.

At the end of the day, our suffering was MAGNIFIED 10X BY HAVING TOO MUCH STUFF to keep moving around and around and around while the work was being done.

It really took looking at our basement emptied into the rest of our house to realize how grotesque having too much is.

If we had let go of things a long time ago, it would have been MUCH less difficult.

So even though this has been brutal, I realized so many things true about ourselves, the good and the bad. Pain is relative to your perspective.

Love ya,
mean it.
i

Hi Nancy,
Aww, I am so happy she was in a good mood :)
YES we loved the portrait. Thank you. Now her's and Emi's are going to grace their new play room!! I will send a photo soon :)
She can't wait to sign up for more art classes.
xoxo
Id