Are you familiar with the Chinese proverb where the farmer has several situations that happen in succession and his neighbors keeping labeling each situation as good or bad luck?
If you are familiar skip ahead, if not here’s the story:
A farmer had a horse, but one day the horse ran away. His neighbors came and tried to console him by saying “Oh what bad luck!” The farmer simply stated, “We shall see.” Then the horse came back and brought with it several wild horses. His neighbors proclaimed, “What good luck!” The farmer calmly expressed, “We shall see.” While trying to tame the new horses the farmer’s son got kicked and broke his leg. The neighbors gathered and looked on declaring “What bad luck!” The farmer, with his son, just said, “We shall see.” Shortly there after a war broke out in the land and the farmer’s son was not drafted to the cause because of his injury.
I love this story as it paints such a peaceful example of waiting before we react, before we judge something as “bad luck”, or label a situational result as a finality when it could be just a part of a bigger picture.
Recently, I had a series of events that could have all been easily labeled as “bad luck” by myself or others. I suppose I can trace the first part of the events that unfolded as the day when my dishwasher broke and flooded water in my kitchen and basement. It wasn’t a huge amount of water but enough to create damage to the flooring and subfloor and cause a mildew to grow and overwhelm my kitchen.
I began the process of a home insurance claim for water damage. Shortly afterward my kitchen was torn up – bad flooring ripped out and gapping hole where the dishwasher once was. Dealing with the insurance was not my strongest showing of grace, to put it mildly. My father had to remind me several times to be patient. This situation in particular, having my home in disorder or chaos, wears on my spirit. As an empath, I am very sensitive to my environment.
Well, very unexpectedly, a few weeks into this situation I got laid off and was denied the standard severance we had been giving other employees for a smaller one. I struggled with rejection and anger for a few days afterward, but quickly bounced back as I recognized it was a relief to be set free from a job I did not love. I enjoyed the people, the culture, and the safety of that role, but not the work itself.
Amazingly, maybe because my parents now live in my home, a brother-in-law and sister offered to help me financially with the mortgage and utilities for six months. What a gift and blessing, which allowed me to have some peace amongst the turmoils.
While still struggling with getting answers from the insurance adjuster, I continued to do my end of summer canning and one night my glass top stove cracked and became unusable. I dropped my phone and my screen cracked. My mother wondered why I was having such bad luck.
Six weeks after the dishwasher broke, I received a large check from the insurance for the damage. I was able to take that money and do an inexpensive update to the kitchen that I had long been wanting to do and felt I should do just in case my path leads to needing to sell my home this coming year.
Since losing my job, I have been able to focus on pushing forward into a new career. One helping people and animals to heal. Something I have dabbled in for years but never fully pursued because of a lack of time and the ease of a comfortable income. Another unexpected result of being released from my employment, I am no longer clenching my jaw and grinding my teeth while I sleep.
Bad luck? Good luck? We shall see. But truly it all feels like a blessing. It feels like God is overseeing much, if not all of this. I am, even though there have been moments where I felt fear or anger, focusing on trusting that God has a plan. That all will work out for my highest good and the highest good of others.
