The Dreaded "L" Word.

Okay, brace yourselves.  I'm about to share something that is going to make you uncomfortable.  You may even squirm and choose to never come visit again. Here it goes:  lice, Lice, LICE.  Hang in there, dear readers, there's a really good moral to this story, but it does involve the unpleasant aforementioned plague whose mere mention makes you want to itch and dunk yourself in a vat of Clorox.

Let's just start by saying that until recently, we have never before had this scourge.  I used to think that thanks to the many generations of slightly OCD cleanliness fanatics before me had helped inoculate our family against such an outbreak.  I've also learned over and over again that anything I've ever wrinkled my nose at has come back and bit me in the behind at some point later on in life.  Case in point, that the lice plague that hit our church congregation over the last several months eventually found its way into our home.  Apparently, we're not immune no matter what. (I'm still going to hand mop my floors though, thank-you-very-much.)

I'll spare you the details of all of the washing, combing, and outright paranoia (and mortification) that accompanies such an experience.  Let's fast forward to the good stuff, shall we? During the height of the lice outbreak at our house, after yet another round of coming close to shaving heads and burning down the house, I found myself still trying to find the silver lining in this experience.  I came across this "pin" one night on Pinterest:

My son read it out loud from over my shoulder and asked very innocently what blessing could possibly come out of our lice battle.  After a long pause and a sigh (and possibly an itch), my response was, "well, honey, it's not over yet, so maybe we'll find something."  But then together, we came to the conclusion that as a family, we had all really come together in a way that hadn't happened before.  Everyone willingly pitched in when needed, nobody complained (too much) when assigned an extra job to help out mom because she was busy spending HOURS combing through 5 heads of hair daily (and the dog, just to be safe). A new measure of compassion and patience seemed to permeate the whole lot of us over the course of those weeks.  Yes, weeks.  A true battle, I tell you.

                                   But we were tired and eventually we waived our white flags.

It had been a long fight during an already chaotic time in our lives, so we held a family fast several days later praying for help to get through the process of de-licing once and for all (or before Mom had a breakdown).

                                       Here's where the real blessings began to flow.

You have to first appreciate how body-sensitive my son is.  Willingly giving up food is a big deal for him and yet this trial that we were facing was the very first thing in his whole 11 year old life that helped him to want to fast. As a mom, I would go through that nightmare again knowing that the outcome would be that my child would gain enough desire to fast and in doing so, ultimately increase his desire to do it again in the future.
                                                       
                                                         But let's not stop there.

The lice literally disappeared from that day forward. We had ourselves a true miracle.  Life, as far as routine head checks, pillows in the dryer, etc., has gone back to normal for the most part.  We no longer look at each other with quite as much fear (or contempt) when getting a hug good-night from each other. The lice combs have been put away and so have the hazmat-worthy arsenal of shampoos and sprays.

                                                             But that's not all.

There was one last blessing to be found in this experience.  I felt obligated to check the head of one of my daughter's friends for lice because of her frequent visits to our home.  Despite the risk, she continued to come over during those two weeks.  Upon inspection last Friday night, she shyly admitted that she had a huge matted mess of a knot hidden in the back of her hair.  She wasn't exaggerating. It was the worst case that I've ever seen and if you knew this darling teen, you would appreciate just how mortifying this little predicament must have been for her.  She is beautiful and stylish and had been quietly walking around with a ball of hair lurking at the back of her neck.  The life of a 14 year old is hard enough and then you go and throw in a doozy like this one.

Due to her circumstances, she had nobody at home to help her with this until I offered.  So together we sat in the kitchen last night for over an hour and half painfully combing out her hair a few painful strands at a time.  We survived, no hair had to be cut, and best of all she was lice-free.  Had we not had that nasty little plague in the first place, she may have very possibly been walking around with that mat of hair for weeks or months.  I honestly believe that it would (and had already) affected her self-esteem.  What a blessing to have been able to find it, fix it, and forget about it.  I saw her today holding her head up high with her hair down and flowing. She was a whole new girl!

So, let's sum up this latest adventure, shall we?:

1. Don't get lice and if you do, I have the name of a great product, but I honestly hope that you never need to ask me for it's name.

2. No matter how big or small the trial, take Buddha's advice (though I'm sure that Buddha was wrongly credited for that quote): no matter how bad it seems, look for the blessing. You'll be surprised at what you find when you go looking. Brightly colored blooms, so-to-speak, are all around us.

3. Our hardships always, ALWAYS work in a way that will bless others and in the end make it all worthwhile.  Be on the lookout for those opportunities. It's the hardest task, but the most satisfying, I promise.

If you've made it this far, thank you for going along for today's ride!  I promise the next one will be, well...less itch-inducing.

                        That's a whole lot of hair to check, but worth the sacrifice.

~Arianna