What is The Good in This?

I truly believe there is good in everything that happens to us. We sometimes have to look hard to find it, but it is there. If we don't find the good, if we focus only on the negative, our stress levels can go dangerously out of control. The story below is one which could have created a lot of ...I truly believe there is good in everything that happens to us. We sometimes have to look hard to find it, but it is there. If we don't find the good, if we focus only on the negative, our stress levels can go dangerously out of control. The story below is one which could have created a lot of stress.

Last night at 11:00, we were getting ready to go to bed. It had been a long day, filled with activities, a good day but now we were tired and just wanted to go to bed. I asked Byron if he would go downstairs and get the last load of clothes out of the dryer.

All of a sudden I heard him say, "We have a problem."

I got up and went downstairs to see a good inch of water covering our basement floor. The water was literally pouring in one of the basement windows. We had a very mild day, and the 15 centimeters of snow that fell the night before was melting. Our driveway was covered with ice thereby forcing the water over to the house. I couldn't believe the amount of water and how quickly it was pouring in.

We ended up going outside with our pick and shovels to make drains to redirect the water pouring down our property. Shema, our dog was with us and she had a bizarre look on her face as if she was trying to figure out what was going on. It was her bedtime, not time to be outside! She made us laugh as we worked on our drains!

After an hour outside, we did manage to redirect the water, but now we had the chore of getting the water out of our basement. So, for the next hour, we used the shop vac (good thing we have a big one) to suck up the water.

We ended up going to bed at 1:00 in the morning, 2 hours from our original plan. And now we were really tired!

So what good was there in a basement full of water?

Well here are my thoughts:
· If we had not found the water until morning, we probably would have had triple the amount of water in our basement, and it would probably have taken us all day to clean it up.
· Byron is finishing two of the rooms in the basement and was planning to put computer and radio equipment on the wall where the window was. Now we know that if something similar happened again equipment by that window would not be a good thing!
· There was nothing of value damaged.
· We now know that we have to fix our window and install a window well so the water will automatically be redirected.
· We now have a clean basement floor!

Finding the good in everything truly comes down to your own attitude. You can freak out, you can get upset, you can scream and yell, but what good does that do. If you take action, fix the issue, then you truly are reducing your stress levels.