Mirriam-Webster defines perspective as the capacity to view things in their true relations or relative importance.

I experienced perspective this week.

On Tuesday, I had a flooding situation at my house. Before I turned in for the night, I went to my laundry room to gather some clothes that needed to be put away, and after noticing a sour smell, I looked up to find that nearly a third of my ceiling was brown.

Water was also dripping down on my dryer and brand new washing machine.

I could not believe my eyes. I stood there for a minute confused, trying to figure out what was happening.

After my initial shock subsided, I quickly went upstairs to the bathroom that is directly over the laundry space and turned the water line off to the commode.

There was water on the floor in the bathroom, too.

I went back downstairs to summon hubby.

The two of us immediately began to clear things away from the dripping ceiling, and he even had to climb up on a stool to remove the globe from the light fixture. It was filling with water.

Cloth cubed containers I use to keep a few things stored at the top of my laundry room shelves also had to be removed.

I cleaned up as best I could that night, and the next day I made a call to the plumber.

After assessing the situation, he found no broken pipes, fortunately.

It seems it was just an old screw on the commode that had deteriorated. It was an easy fix.

The ceiling was another story.

Sheet rock had to be cut out and replaced, and of course, there was the clean-up.

My new washing machine, the one I have not even completely paid for yet, had been christened with the filthy water and had to be cleaned along with a good floor mopping.

At any other given time, this water leak would have sent me over the edge and caused at the very least a crying fit, but not this week.

All I could think about were the people living in Texas who were experiencing the wrath of Hurricane Harvey and the massive flooding the storm has caused.

My little water leak was just a “drop in the bucket” compared to what these Texans experienced, and this incident served as a reminder for me.

During times in my life when things are not going as I would like them to, I need to remember perspective, because my water leak might not be as great as someone else’s.

Terri Cowart Frazier is a staff writer for The Vicksburg Post. You may reach her at terri.fazier@vicksburgpost.com.