Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life

To my son Tommy,

The past few days have taught me much about life and attitude and perspective.  The Downeys have been sick and feeling quite miserable.  Congestion, body ache, cough, you name it and it is contributing to our general disposition.  When such misery finds someone the usual pleasantries of life fly out the window.  Interactions are reduced to the base necessity to accomplish what is needed, as evidenced by my past few blog posts.  You just want to be left alone and can never muster the energy for anything else.

So I can focus on this feeling, focus in on the work I am falling behind in, focus in on the bad...or I can look to my son for his example.  There have been moments that you have been a grouch, and not a single soul can begrudge you these moments.  You have had to adjust to nebulizers and suffer bad tasting medicines.  When I give you one of these supposedly "cherry" tasting medicines, you look at me look like "Yeah, sure, tastes like cherries, taste like cherries that have been eaten and passed by a deer!".  But the instances seem to be the exception with you and not the rule.  You have attacked this illness like a male version of Pollyanna.  You have refused to abandon your manners and insist on thanking every doctor and nurse in your path.  You have  prided yourself in wearing your mask as you take the nebulizer treatment.  You have kept playing and imagining and the only difference there is you seem to give your stuffed animals a couple more doctor checkups as you play.

Again I can focus in on the bad, or think about the good of this week.  The extra time I got to play with my son.  The time I got to see your mom just make you crack up laughing by smelling your piggy toes and saying P.U. as we sat in the emergency room and you were getting a neb treatment.  The time I got to see true courage as a three year old faced the unknown terrors of doctors and hospital without blinking an eye.  The feeling of my son laying his head on my lap and falling asleep at what is close to the end of a rough week.  Focusing on the love and beauty of the littlest moments, even in the midst of the throes of misery due to health, can make the world a better place.

Sincerely with love from your dad,
Leo