It was a bit touch-and-go towards the end of last week…
Storm Nelson was battering the UK, and our swale was being put to the test.
If you’re new to these emails and aren’t familiar with our flood defence scheme, our house is right next to a brook that flows with rainwater in wet weather from the surrounding fields.
The brook has always worked like a dream taking water away until a couple of years ago when building work for a new estate commenced nearby and a new road was put in.
We were flooded twice in a year but the council decided it wasn’t their fault, even though they had blocked the brook during their work, and so we’ve had to take matters into our own hands a constructed a swale, which involved digging out a channel in our field to divert excess brook water away from the house.
It’s done a great job over the last few months when rainfall has been heavy, but it was tested to its max last week.
Last Wednesday night, Kev and I sat up in the middle of the night under a blanket on the sofa that looks out over the garden, because the brook and swale were at full height, just inches from breaking over and flooding the house again.
It was a weird feeling - we had pulled important things like the grandchildren’s toys off the floor, and we were prepared to move other things last minute if the brook broke its banks, but after being flooded twice before, we knew most of it was out of our control and there was certainly no point flapping.
I just sat gazing out at the scene thinking, “What am I grateful for?”
Well, I was grateful that we didn’t live in a bungalow and we could stay dry upstairs if the water came in.
I was grateful that Kev wasn’t the sort of person to lose his shit and was staying calm with me.
I was grateful that we were both feeling healthy and well.
I was grateful for my lovely family and friends, and for loving our work and having awesome clients.
I was grateful that flood problems are temporary: whatever happened we could fix it and somehow life would be OK again.
When you focus on feeling grateful for everything that’s right in your life, and put all your attention on what you can control rather than the things you can’t, it makes the tricky times easier to deal with.
We got away with it that night, but the rain came again the next day and our gym/office got wet. It’s a wooden building that’s slightly lower than the rest of the house, and it just couldn't stand up on its tippy toes long enough to stay dry.
It’s a bit of a bugger because it means my Peleton bike is out of action, but in his wisdom Kev had fitted it with a waterproof floor after the first flood, so all that was needed was a spring clean when the water subsided and we were good to go again.
It felt great going in there this morning to a sparkling clean gym - yet another reason to feel grateful for one of life’s little challenges.
The thing is, there will always be shit to deal with in life.
Some things are harder than others, especially where a loved ones’ health is concerned, but most of life’s little challenges are nothing more than inconveniences that can be framed in some kind of positive light if you choose to think differently.
A great phrase I remind myself of is “Things don’t happen to us, they happen for us”.
Challenges build us up from the inside and we grow and learn from them, even if it’s simply learning to let go of worrying about what we can’t control.
As Dory said in Finding Nemo, you just have to keep swimming - sometimes literally!