Unexpected Calamities

"When you are afflicted with troubles and unexpected calamities, thank God for their existance, too. Know full well that He will protect you and that He wants you to extract a lesson or two from them." -Swami Chidvilasananda

Saturday night I was alone on the couch, Ramon was in London picking up an award at a film festival. Thunder cracked and lightning lit the night sky, rain poured down. I sat huddled and cozy in blankets, watching the German version of American Idol. I hardly took notice of the raging weather outside, after all I was warm and safe in my home.
The next morning, the neighbors knocked on the door. "The cellar is flooded," they said. Oh well, I thought at first, no big deal. We filled bucket after bucket with water, dumping it outside, then took to sorting through masses of wet boxes with ruined things and lugging them upstairs. It was quite a process, but I wasn't sad because nothing of value had been ruined...or so I thought.
I came to the last box, the wettest one, way down at the bottom, and my heart sunk when I saw that Ramon's sketches and paintings from art school lay inside. I cried as I lay them out flat on our tile floor. I didn't know what to do. These were nothing one could just go out and replace. Finally I decided to call Ramon and tell him the news. "What paintings?" He asked. I sobbed and explained. "Oh, don't worry about those, all my favorites are safe and dry at the office." I let out a sigh of relief and wiped away my tears.
After emtying out the whole cellar and cleaning the floor, we surveyed the piles of wet belongings stacked outside our building. And amazingly, I felt refreshed. I thought about it all being trucked off to the dump, and actually felt....GOOD.
And so, from this calamity, I took the lesson of letting go, and looking for the good in a situation that may at first seem negative.
Also, most of Ramon's paintings still looked fine once they dried. Yay!
WHAT HAS BEEN A BLESSING IN DISGUISE FOR YOU?