Overwhelmed

Life has been hard recently. Not in the loved one is dying sense, or where am I getting my next meal sense and because of that I am very lucky and very thankful.  But it’s been hard in the sense that I’ve been feeling overwhelmed for a very long time and 19+ hour days are the norm. Real 19+ hour days where if I didn’t make myself stop I wouldn’t have a chance to eat. The Boy moved to California and that means I’m alone, taking care of the dogs who are stressed out because I’m stressed out, dealing with packing and moving our house, wrapping up a job, and trying to find a new job. Oh yeah, I also need to go to court to sue someone for damages to my vehicle from a hit and run. And while no one of those things is unmanageable, all of it together feels as though it is. The reason it hasn’t been unmanageable is because of the people around us. In fact, in it’s own way, it’s been really overwhelming how much people have cared for us during a tough time. Check out these examples:

 

• The moving truck gave us less than 24 hours notice and is coming when I need to give a big talk 45 minutes away from home as part of an award that I received. Within 15 minutes of realizing that this was a problem, we had several friends who were willing to do whatever they could to help and one will be supervising the move on our behalf.
• Several neighbors parked their cars spaced down our block so that they can move them when the moving truck arrives so that it will have a place to park
• Friends have offered dinners and places in their homes, both in Colorado and on points that I’ll cross on the drive out (the dogs are even welcome, too).
• A stranger- someone I literally had never met- brought my Cervelo back from the mountains where I was using it to train, saving me hours of driving.
• When I was trying to sell my Cervelo I realized I had packed my pedal wrench and my local bike shop put some test pedals on, filled up my tires, and let me wait at their place while I sealed the deal. They also hustled to pack the three bikes we’re taking because originally they (and we!) were told that the movers would be coming on Wednesday, not Friday.
• A woman at the police records office in another county (where the hit and run happened) filled out paperwork for me then offered to physically walk that paperwork around the office to expedite getting the 911 call released in hopes of getting it in time for the hearing.

All of this has happened in the last four days and it has been absolutely humbling to see how our community has rallied around us during a kind of crazy time. I am overwhelmed with gratitude and seeing the good in the people we know here makes it that much harder to say goodbye. Thankfully we have examples of kindness to look forward to in California, too:

• Knowing that The Boy was flying out with just a suitcase, our new landlord had a bed, lamp, and kitchen basics ready for The Boy’s first night in California so he didn’t have to have an empty house and sleep on the floor.

We are so, so, so very lucky and people’s generosity is overwhelming.