In an effort to relax myself, I took a break from life and all of its “trials” and sat in a chair for two hours while my hands and feet were massaged and beautified. Everyone has something that he or she does to relieve some stress and just generally feel better and going to the nail salon is my outlet.
Normally, I do not like to be bugged while sitting in my big massage chair being pampered. That is my time to just be with myself and not worry about the things I have to get done upon leaving my big massage chair. However, my most recent trip to the nail salon presented a change, a change not only in the way I spent my time but in the way I looked at the world outside of the salon.
You see, there was a lady who also likes to get her nails done sitting beside me. She told me that she had been getting solar (fake) nails put on for many, many years but that she had recently fallen on hard financial times and “was going to have to do something different.” I knew exactly what she meant because I also used to wear solar nails and that, my friends, is one expensive accessory.
She went on to tell me about how her friends would be so disappointed to see her nails not adorned with interesting patterns and colors, but she had to give up something in order to go on. Now, it might sound silly to some to think of someone being so upset about not being able to have a certain type of fingernail, and I will admit that, at first, I didn’t understand either. I kept thinking to myself, “They aren’t THAT awesome.” But, what I learned next quickly cleared that thought.
The woman told me that her husband had recently passed after being terminally ill for over nine years. I couldn’t really believe that she was telling me all of these personal stories, but it was clear that she needed someone to talk to, so I listened. She told me over and over that when her husband was alive she would go get her nails done and when she would come home he would be so excited to see what interesting design she had selected to paint on them. She would then show him her nails and her husband would tell her how beautiful they looked, but I think he might have been telling her how beautiful SHE looked.
I kept listening to her stories and it became crystal clear to me that she was beginning to deal with the reality that when she went home after her trip to the nail salon that day her beloved husband would not be there to greet her. I could see the moisture in her eyes, and I could hear the agony in her voice when she said to me, “Gosh, I just miss him so much.”
She finished her nails and went back to her home, and I was left there in my big massage chair to think. Every day I complain about something whether it be my endless flow of assignments, my lack of time to do something other than go to school and work or how exhausted I am because I can’t seem to catch up with life. But, after speaking to that woman I realized that everything I have to complain about isn’t worth the time it takes to complain about it after all. I realized I am healthy, I am on the right track in life, I am fulfilling my dreams, I am loved by plenty of people and, above all, I am alive. I have more to be thankful for than I have to complain about at the end of every day, but it took me seeing the real trials of life that someone else was living to really, truly understand.