I've been in a funk. Distracted. Unable to focus. Worried about the fact that no work is coming my way. Already losing sleep over how to pay property taxes for 2011. You know the drill. You lie awake staring at the ceiling, crunching numbers that never add up. Basically, I've been having a little pity party with a very short invitation list.

But then I got an email from my brother. He lives several states away. Haven't seen him in more years than I care to admit. We email a few times a year. Usually on holidays, graduations, birthdays. He sent me a Father's Day email to pass along to my husband, along with an update on his family goings on.

I think the pity party's over.

How does his life suck right now? Let me count the ways. His wife is afflicted with a rare, debilitating neurogical disorder. It has now progressed to the point where he has trouble understanding her when she speaks and walking is difficult. He has to pick her up and place her in and out of the car. He had to sell his truck, which he loved, because it was becoming impossible to get her in and out of the vehicle.

Her short-term disability payments are about to run out.

They have almost depleted their 401K.

They don't know where the money will come from after that.

One of their four daughters, who had a sleazy job at a sleazy establishment and a sleazy boyfriend, now has a baby with no father. She lived with my brother and his wife for a while, but she has now moved away to another state--alone. It's his first grandchild. A boy. The boy he always wanted.

His job as a manager at chicken processing plant sucks. He's at least 8-10 years away from retirement.

His oldest daughter's husband (her third, if memory serves) is about to be deployed to Iraq.

I could go on, but those are the highlights. I wish there were something I could do to make his life better. But, his brief update has shed new light on my own existential angt.

Simply put, I've gotta get over it.

To the best of my knowledge, my family is healthy. I just returned from my daily 5-mile walk. No one in the family is about to enter a war zone. And, while we're having a serious cash flow problem right now, we're a long way from the bread line.

The old Persian proverb in modern cadence, "I cried because I had no shoes, until I met the man who had no feet" rings painfully true.

Unfortunately, that man is my brother.