When my son Rafi started high school, he went on a trip to Spain with his school. We had a parents’ meeting before the trip, and amidst many of the instructions given to us, we were told to pack a change of clothing in the carry-on. The reason being that if the main luggage was lost, at least they would have extra clothes until it was found. I took this suggestion to heart, and when I’ve had to check in luggage, I’ve always packed a change of clothing inside my carry-on. I call it my mixed suitcase because it contains a little bit of everything. However, I have always packed my toiletries in its own separate carry-on suitcase. Those were never to be mixed with the clothes—that is, until now.
On my unexpected trip to the mountains, I forgot the toiletries bag at my daughter’s house. I didn’t realize this until I finished putting away all our clothes. It was almost five o’clock when it dawned on me that not only was I missing the toiletries, but also all our prescription medications. This meant we would have to drive back to Charlotte.
When I look back at my years, I tend to categorize them as either a terrible year or a wonderful year. But as I look back at 2021, I have decided to classify it as a mixed suitcase kind of year. This year had a mixture of horrendous and wonderful events.
We started the year with Covid. Both Alex and Keely entered 2021 testing positive. In mid January, Rafi and Emily came to visit for two weeks and we were able to be all together for the first time in over a year. We then got the vaccine so that gave us some hope that maybe this was the beginning of the end for this pandemic.
On Mother’s Day, the year peaked with the wonderful news that we were going to become grandparents. And then, it collapsed in June when we lost six friends in the Surfside tragedy.
Alex, Keely, Daniel and Chabeli moved to Charlotte this year. We are now all spread out from New York to Miami, but we were able to travel plenty between all three cities to visit all our kids. We definitely saw more of them in 2021 than we did in 2020, so distance was not an obstacle.
Another marvelous thing that happened in this mixed suitcase year is that I finished the book that I began to write back in 2007. Not only did I finish it, but I hired an editor and I have the finished manuscript ready to be sent out to publishers. The next step… let’s just say I’ll leave it in God’s hands.
We attended a beautiful wedding in New Hampshire, celebrated my mom’s 80th birthday, went to more funerals than we would have liked, but celebrated life with the birth of Benedict on November 2nd. By far, his birth was the highlight of this mixed year, taking it to a higher level of marvelous. We met him on November 10th, and the feeling of joy that I felt when I met this little boy, son of my son, can only be understood by another grandparent. In one sweeping motion, all the horrible events of the year were erased.
Even though the year did not end in New York as we had planned, we were able to spend a week in North Carolina with our younger kids. And as I reflect on this mixed up year, I realize that I have so much to be thankful for. It also hit me that even on those years that I labeled as horrible, I also had a lot to be grateful for. All years, if we truly look at them, are made up of mixed events, some good and some bad. It’s up to us to succumb to the bad or rise up with the good.
As we started our drive back to Charlotte to retrieve our toiletries and medications, I was able to get a hold of our doctor. He called in our prescriptions to a nearby pharmacy. We bought all the important toiletries, picked up the meds, avoided seven hours of driving back and forth, and had an amazing three days celebrating Christmas on the mountains. I did not have my face creams, but I survived, and I learned that in order to be prepared, I must always pack a mixed suitcase.
Even though 2022 will also arrive with a mixed suitcase because the pandemic is not over, may the marvelous events overshadow the horrible ones. Grab on to all the good, and don’t succumb to the bad. And if you forget the toiletries… don’t despair. There are drugstores everywhere.
Copyright © 2021 Christy Romero. All rights reserved.
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