So tonight

We have been in the hospital emergency room. Phil has a huge, really huge kidney stone that is causing him pain akin to childbirth. His urologist ( as a kid growing up, did you ever, EVER think you would have a urologist on your instant dial? ) is out of town so unless we want to go to a strange hospital over an hour away, instead of our little everyone knows everyone hospital, they doped him up and sent him home until Tuesday morning. Unless, the pain returns with relentless force and then we head back to the ER. This stone is 10 mm big! If you know anything about beads, you know that 10mm is a decent size and one that is extraordinarily painful in your little ureter tubes. So we sit at home tonight, no fluids for him, we do not want this stone to move, and I watch him sleep, toss, moan and wish that the pain would go away. Jacob is also sick tonight and has a fever. Poor boy is alternately sleeping and eating dry cheerios. My boys are definitely under the weather.

Two things I realized tonight. Little lessons learned in unexpected places: one, everyone knew me at the hospital as the bead lady and even as Phil was having an IV inserted, the nurse was telling me how much she liked my shop. That is why I like living in this town. I was worried and the staff made me feel known, comforted. Two, nothing matters but my family. Not bead shows, not how much money the shop took in today, not how much work was done in the studio or office, nothing matters but my family. I would be lost without them. Sometimes, the universe just needs to slap me up against the head to remind me of this. In the scheme and plans of life everything is small stuff, not worth worrying about but your family - now there is something that matters.

Waiting for our flight home from Tucson.