Perspective

Sunday afternoon at the playground nearby, we lost Valerie's little cat toy that she takes everywhere with her. Somewhere in these bushes... we tore apart the place trying to find it. Even drained the fountain (you can see the rim of it over the irises). No luck.

She's been taking it pretty well, actually, and we found a replacement on Amazon for about $5 that we'll pick up next time we're in the US. Meanwhile, she's adopted a replacement - a bunny the same size and color.

I think there's potential here for her to learn emotional resilience and responsibility for her things. I'm not sure if I'm the best person to teach her, since I think I took it harder than she did since I felt responsible.

~::~

On Monday, 13 people lost their lives in a bus accident in southern Albania. It was almost exactly the same kind of accident that resulted in the loss of my friend and fellow volunteer's life in Bolivia almost exactly 14 years prior.

It's hard to imagine losing either of my children. We try so hard to protect them - probably too hard, in some ways - but there is no way in this life, on this earth, for ourselves or our possessions to be perfectly safe at all times. There just isn't. In that sense, I'm glad it was "only" a toy that was lost.