nothing else matters.
Seriously, a good way of putting things back in perspective is to realize that after everything that has happened in your life, if you still have a family to be with at the end of the day, you know you'll be all right.
I spent my weekend at my brother's house to see my new nephew. He's cute and all, but as he spent most of his still-new life by sleeping, eating and producing dirt, there really wasn't much to do with him...yet. So as usual, I spent my 2-days playing all sort of games with his elder brother and 2 sisters.
Monday morning, I was getting ready to go back home. Always feeling reluctant to leave my little rugrats, I was feeling a bit restless and gloomy, but I knew I had to go, so I was trying to spend the last minute having fun with my nieces. My oldest nephew, in the meantime, was busy playing Playstation with his friends. At one point he was running upstairs to fetch a towel because he was getting ready for bath.
That was half-past noon and I had planned to take a bus on 1 pm. My brother's driver was already waiting for me outside and I was collecting my stuffs when I heard a loud breaking noise, almost like a little explosive. To my horror, I saw my nephew lying on the bathroom floor. It happened all too quickly. He was falling from the roof and hit the wet bathroom tiles. What's more scary was the sight of him. Shocked, he was having difficulty breathing. His face was all white and he was in tremor from pain. It was one of the most horrible spectacle in my life.
Turned out that he found a hole in the roof and his adventurous soul took him to the area which happens to be the bathroom ceiling. It stands 3-metres high and badly needs repairing, so it couldn't sustain a 66-pound 8-year-old. But Gott sei Dank, my nephew fell on his back and perhaps a little to his side because he managed to save his head from a concussion and kept his backbone intact. Still, his mum and I were horrified and the driver and I went like mad to the hospital with him in the back seat of the car, still in pain.
I would have cried my heart out if I hadn't had the same experience years ago. When I was 9, my dear, silly old brother also fell from the ceiling at gram's house and since he was a living proof that he could survive such accident, I knew my nephew's going to be fine as well. After X-ray and USG, the doctor confirmed that he was fine and the only thing he must endure is the bruises. But there was miraculously no broken bones. It was amazing, and a blessing.
I missed my bus, of course, and went home in the evening. I slept early at night and woke up late the next day (which is today), out of emotional exhaustion. You will be, if your heart leaps to your feet for a few minutes. But before bed I didn't forget to write in my gratitude journal. And if you ever love someone as much as I love my nephew, you will know how I feel. If my body didn't take over, I would be staying up all night to write my thank you to God for saving my nephew.
I always believe that everything happens for a reason. The accident hopefully teaches my nephew to control his impulses to move around all the time and to think before doing something stupid and dangerous. For me, it surely reminds me again and again that there is always something more important than all my problems. And one of this is my family. There's no problem that will not be solved, and if it's not solved it will pass, but family will always be there for you. And a lot of times, they take you and everything you've got, including your excess baggage.
