Adapting and adjusting is hard work, no matter how nimble you might think you are.

This week I learned of a former, influential coworker, who relocated his family to one of the hottest and now one of wettest parts of the country, in the middle of a pandemic, to a house purchased site unseen needing appliances that can’t be delivered due to COVID precautions leaving him to pick them up, one per store, due to low inventory and trying to feed a family of five out of a … beer fridge.

A story within a story, those three young ones, not only changed states and cities but also school districts.  Now that school has started, the “new kid” students aren’t very excited about starting class (even if it was home town) but new town…even less so.

We’ve been distance socializing with friends in the garage far enough apart yet close enough together.  Last weekend I heard a story of one couple’s surprisingly  poor service at a restaurant in a prominent community.  When Dad went home to commiserate with young, aspiring, health care worker daughter, she quickly responded…”Dad (sigh)…I don’t want to hear it.  I was at work today and dealt with one elderly patient who, not knowing what he was doing, messed himself, not once or twice … but five times.”  Apparently, after each cleaning, changing and tucking it was followed by a feeble “Oops.”

I’m going to guess that you aren’t using your beer fridge to feed your family out of and that you haven’t had to clean up after a poor, incontinent patient for four hours straight today … but if you did, kudos to you.

These are first world problems by anyone’s measure but we are creatures who seek comfort.  Regardless of reason, when we are inconvenienced, it stings.

If you find yourself struggling with the changes demanded by COVID, you are not alone.

My challenge for you today is to think beyond yourself and beyond your current circumstances.  Someone always has it worse than you.