Fortunate to be Grateful

I really don't have anything in particular to blog about. Nothing extraordinary or exciting has happened. I haven't made any new revelations. I'm still working a lot.
But.....I have gotten to know some co-workers better. On a deeper level.
One woman I work with whom I get along with swimmingly told me some information about her past that was somewhat devastating. She has three beautiful children and a wonderful husband and for nine years they had lived in a great apartment over in brooklyn. Their super-intendant was like an uncle. Well, one day, her youngest baby got sick. Like really sick. Like he couldn't stand up, couldn't see, was having trouble breathing so she got him to the hospital as quick as she could.
The doctors hooked him up to all kinds of machines....trying to pump this toxic substance out of his system. "What has your son been exposed to??" they kept asking. "I don't know! What do you mean?" Then it dawned on her. That black stuff that kept resurfacing on the walls and windows. The stuff she kept cleaning. Mold. The deadliest kind.
They weren't allowed to even set foot back in that building again. They had been told that every last one of their exposed belongings was toxic and unless they wanted to risk their health/lives everything would have to be left behind.
So that was that. They left nine years of life behind and walked away with the clothes on their backs. Not to mention that now they have to get regular check-ups. The dr.'s even said their children now ran risk of brain damage and being infertile.
Can you imagine?? I can't. I had no idea. And now when her youngest son struggles in school she asks herself, is this a result?
And on the same day I had this conversation with her, I had a talk with one of the guys I work with. he's great. A good guy from virginia. From richmond. Not the safest city in the world. You take one look at him and, because of the way society has labeled people who look like him, you may think 'thug'. He's tatooed all over, he's muscular and he dresses a certain way. I know him and all I see is the guy who gives. The guy who tells it like it is, doesn't put up with shit, but is kind and treats people with the respect they deserve.
But that day we talked and I heard exactly what kind of fucked up shit he's seen and been through. Like when his best friend got shot seven times. Right in front of his face.
Or when his baby brother was pulled out of his house and shot right in front of his mother.
Ok, I usually don't cry when people tell me about the hardships they've been through but I had tears streaming down my face.
It was just so raw. So real.
He was a drug dealer...made shit loads of money. been to jail twice.
But now, it's all in the past. He turned it all around. He's an AMAZING trainer. And he is who he is. and I love that about him.

It's amazing how humbling it is to hear these things.

It doesn't make any sense for me to complain about anything.