Just when you start feeling sorry for yourself because you barely have enough money to pay rent and both kids need new clothes and you're wondering how in the heck you're going to find a home for six new kittens, life smacks you right upside the head.

My friend's granddaughter died Wednesday. She was seven months old. SIDS, perhaps. The autopsy report has not been released.

Life: It's a fragile, fleeting, passing thing.

In the midst of frustration, because my 11- and 12-year-old cannot go one day without quarreling over something, I have to stop and realize how blessed I am to have two healthy children who are able to quarrel. When I want to complain because I've been hacking like a smoker (I don't smoke) because of all the Middle Tennessee pollen that is in every single breath I take, I have to stop and be grateful that I am able to breathe, able to cough, able to have itchy, swelling eyes and a runny nose.

Many years ago when I finally learned that life is all the good and all the bad rolled into one, I felt that I had discovered the secret. If I could look at all things that happen to me and allow them to happen without my feeling cursed, singled out, plotted upon, then I would be able to accept whatever happened to me and roll with it. But, losing a child — I don't know how a mother recovers from that loss. As tough and strong as I like to think I am, would I be able to move forward with life if my son or daughter died?

We've all heard about the seven most difficult things we can face in life: Divorce, job change or loss, relocation, marriage, pregnancy, illness or death, but we don't all have to face these.

In our world here at FWW, we have all been divorced or are thinking about getting a divorce or are in the throes of a divorce. And, for each of us going through this, our experience is unique. Our pain, our suffering, our fear, it is all relative to each individual. Being able to share our feelings with one another is important. We've created a safe haven of sorts. We've all lost something: a husband, a house, money, our status, or even custody.

But we're all still breathing. Each of us is able to come to FWW and surf around and read other women's ideas and thoughts, concerns and solutions. What a world we live in. We are indeed blessed to know one another and to have the honor of being able to pour out our inner most thoughts without fear of rejection or destructive criticism.

So, tomorrow or even today, when you get chewed out by your unreasonable boss, or your son finds your semi-sweet chocolate bar stash and eats it without your knowing it, or you break your favorite wine glass or slip in the mud and ruin your best pair of slacks or you get a nasty letter from a bill collector — put it all into perspective. It's just life, and we are so blessed to be living it.