Appreciation

I never realised how much I am loved by the people around me. And by people I might never have met if it hadn't been for a random connection. A simple mistake is all it takes for you to see that people who love you will go above and beyond to help you out if they possibly can.

I had forgotten I had my glasses on and dove into a pool in the river on our way back from a hike. So, of course, my glasses slide off my nose. I resurface and emit foul language at my stupidity. My family members/hiking buddies notice this and are duly distressed for me. Unfortunately the pool is deeper than all of us are tall and my dive stirred up all the accumulated sediment so nobody can see past their elbows when submerged to the shoulder.

The biggest monkey (in the climbing ability sense) of our group dives down where i indicate to search around the bottom. He can't see anything and the bottom is covered in leaves. At this point I'm seriously upset at myself. And the others in my group are asking when my next exam is and whether I need my glasses to read as if to try and find out whether it is terribly important to find them or whether I should just make an appointment with the optician.

We wait a while to see if the sediment settles any more. One can now see to one's knees. The monkey gets the idea of putting a plastic bag over his face so he can open his eyes underwater. But this time my uncle (by marriage) has gone down to look. After about 30 seconds underwater he resurfaces glasses in hand. Relief breaks over me like a wave. I'm shaky and grinning and the others are saying I owe him.

He gets a hug from me but I'm still feeling bad about my mistake. I end up self-punishing on the inside (which consists of feeling bad about myself for a little while until the guilt goes away, no self-harm involved) all the way back to the cars. I get asked whether I'm okay on several occasions probably because I look as awful as I feel. But in the end all I can feel is grateful that I know such wonderful people.