Fortune...

I am frequently reminded how fortunate I am to be here in my life now. I'm driving in this morning, and due to the time change, its still dark in the morning. As I'm driving along the street that leads to my parking garage, traffic has stalled because there is a homeless guy, obviously drunk or stoned, wandering down the middle of the road.

As my minor irritation passed, I mean, how dare he momentarily interrupt my day with this wasteland of existence that he calls his life. Then a thought occurred to me. Who is this guy? Where did he grow up? Did he have loving parents?

I have a friend of mine, we both grew up together, went to the same school, the same church and had the same friends. His parents are together today and his siblings are great normal well adjusted people. Yet at this point of his life, he has an alcohol and drug dependency problem. He has pretty much lost everything, all relationships he's had. We're not sure where he will end up but something drastic needs to change. Apparently he has not hit rock bottom yet.

I was the one who grew up in the broken home, who lived in the "bad" part of town, with the alcoholic absentee father. Yet when I look at our lives today they're totally different.

All of this thinking of course is based on my emotional state now of having to separate myself from my kids and family. I know that I'll still be there for them and still see them but life will certainly be different than it is today. Their confidence will be challenged. Their world will change. Perhaps they will be better for it. And maybe the guy walking down the street today grew up in a really nice home with loving parents.

R.