Blessings and Frustrations are Largely a Matter of Context

Last night I was only woken up at 11, 2:30 and 6.  Those times indicate that my daughter slept in 3 1/2 hour chunks between feedings.  Last week, and the weeks before, she had been sleeping (and eating) in two hour chunks.  Waking up three times in one night is so much better than waking up five or six.

Normal people (being currently defined as people not having a baby that wakes up and wants to eat as frequently as mine does) would probably be annoyed to be woken up three times in the middle of the night. I was thrilled.  So thrilled, in fact, that I almost had trouble getting back to sleep each time because of my excitement.  The difference between normal people and me is simply context. 

My guess is that much of life is like that. 

I get frustrated when 7-11's  Slurpee machine is broken, forgetting that I lived several years of my life when there wasn't even a 7-11 within several hours (almost unimaginable).  I get frustrated as I struggle through what it looks like to balance mothering and my job, forgetting that many women don't have the luxury of struggling with this balance either because they don't live in a part of the world where they can have a good paying job or simply because they aren't able to conceive.  Many barren women would count every frustration I have with my daughter or the balance between work and family as pure joy. 

Alternately, many of the things that bring me joy and that I count as blessings probably wouldn't phase a lot of people.  I feel extremely blessed to be able to take  a couple seminary classes this summer (Theology of the Old Testament and The History of Israel).  For some people, taking these same classes would be torture.  I'm sure I could think of other examples, but the point is simply this: I need to remember that blessings and frustrations exist in context.  Sometimes I need to remember my context to more fully experience my blessings and sometimes I need to remember my context to help ease some of my frustration.