When It Rains (and Leaks, and Breaks, and Hurts…)
A Friday that started normal.
We gifted the kids a mental health day home - it was a half day and they all had amazing conference reports. We were going into the last weekend for The Full Monty, so we all deserved to sleep in and relax…
Then, out of nowhere, my husband was in excruciating pain - the kind that sends you straight to the ER without much thought. Within minutes, we were shifting gears: rearranging schedules, finding someone for the kids, grabbing what we needed, and heading out the door.
Thankfully, the doctors and nurses in the ER were amazing. It turned out to be a kidney stone, and after a few hours of pain meds, fluids, and care, he was on the mend. We were in and out in four hours, which felt like a small miracle. By that afternoon, he was already back home - and by night, somehow back on stage performing The Full Monty (because of course this was closing weekend of a musical we had been working on for two months).
That’s life, isn’t it?
One minute you’re fine, the next you’re in the emergency room, and before you know it, you’re back in your normal clothes pretending nothing happened.
This isn’t the first time we’ve had to pivot for an unexpected medical situation.
Over the years, we’ve had the usual assortment - broken bones, sudden fevers, the time I drove myself to the ER for what I thought was a heart attack that turned out to be a panic attack. Those moments always hit the same way: life pauses just long enough to remind you that it doesn’t really pause at all.
You cancel things. You shift plans.
You move through the day in slow motion. And then, just as quickly, you find yourself back home - tired, grateful, and a little more aware of how fragile and resilient we are all at once.
By the next day, my car decided to die. Then on Monday, the laundry room leak turned into a full-on demolition project. But that Friday? That ER trip set the tone. It reminded me how quickly we can adapt, and how often we actually do.
We like to think of “resilience” as a big, heroic word - something we tap into only when life falls apart.
But I think it’s quieter than that. It’s in the way we handle an unexpected phone call, a sick kid, a rearranged weekend. It’s in the sigh of relief when you finally sit down after holding it together for hours.
We don’t get to control how the hard things show up. But we do get to notice how we keep showing up in spite of them.
A Moment to Reflect: Have you had one of those days that turned upside down without warning - when everything you planned had to shift in an instant?
How did you move through it? Who showed up for you, and how did you show up for them?
Maybe this week, give yourself credit for the quiet ways you’ve handled what’s been handed to you - the late nights, the doctor calls, the in-and-out hospital runs.
You’ve already proven you can do hard things. And you’ll do it again - one moment, one adjustment, one deep breath at a time.
Feel relatable? Join us at one of our upcoming Village Collective Meetups - where you can meet other parents who have relatable life moments right along with you!
