The Out-of-Town Spouse

by

Patti Dickinson

Wood is leaving town tomorrow for a few days.  A jaunt to Los Angeles.  I am always a bit on edge when he travels.  It is usually when calamities happen. Broken air-conditioner, a stopped up shower drain that has it raining in the living room onto the piano.  A kid with a broken collarbone.  I can handle those things....a call to the a/c guy, the plumber or a run to the ER.  It's the who/what I am leaving behind that is worrisome.  I mean, who leaves their house to run the morning carpool with a rain forest in the living room?  I guess it's that those things knock out-of-whack the normal flow of the day.  

But those same interruptions are found in life, with/without an absentee spouse.  A throwing up preschooler, a flat tire, a chipped tooth, a fallen tree limb makes it so that your plans for haircut/Board meeting/oil change can come to a screeching halt. In many ways, I think that it is a wake-up call.  It reminds us that we aren't indispensible.  Someone will step up to meet Chris Cakes at five in the morning at the elementary school and the Pancake Breakfast will happen.  With or without us. It serves to remind us that in the hustle and bustle, and the loaded calendars, taking care of that sick kid is the most important thing you will do today.  That sometimes, when the wheels fall off life, families hunker down, and the outside world, with all it's demands (some of which are self-imposed) fades into the background.