Shrugging it Off

 Who chewed up this computer power cord?

 Was it you?!  Of course not.

You there, with the two chew toys right beside you, was it you!?  I think we've found the culprit.

Which leads us to today's good thing.  This is a good thing specific to my life -- and specific to this particular time in my life.

Last night we discovered that the new puppy had chewed up Ally's computer power cord.  The power cord was spanked and told that it was a bad power cord and Pepper was given a "good chew" as a substitute.  As we went to bed, Jeff heaved a big sigh and noted that there was $100 down the drain.  And that was it.

I thought to myself, "Thank God, we can cover that loss without stressing out."  No one likes to have to pay $100 they don't have to pay, but it wasn't a crisis in our house like it might have been in some houses.

This morning when I was thinking, a memory floated back to me of a trip we took to King's Island amusement park when the girls were little.  We were on the tram going into the park with a bunch of other eager kids and their parents. A little birthday girl about six years old and her dad were near us.  She was squirmy with excitement and I remember her dad impressing on her that he had promised to take her to King's Island for her birthday and that he was fulfilling that promise.  It wasn't hard to guess that there were a lot of promises in this girl's life that he hadn't fulfilled.

A little of the joy drained out of my day when I thought of our season passes and that my daughters had been to the park so often that it was almost a bore.  This little girl had never been and her dad was so proud to be able to give her this treat.

I like to think that we would be the same people if we were in different circumstances.  We would simply make different choices and have different joys.  Instead of looking forward to a trip to Japan this fall, we would look forward to a trip to Gatlinburg or a camping trip -- like my family did when I was a child.  Instead of dining at Jo An's and Robert's Table, it would be a treat to bring home KFC or eat out at Frisch's.

But that's probably not true.  When money is tight, there is an added stress to life.  There is pain when you have to say "no, we can't afford that," to your kids.

Of course, not all of my daughters' dreams were fulfilled.  We never got that pony and I never furnished the outdoor fort with electricity and running water.  But, overall, we've been able to say "yes" to most things.

I hope no one thinks that I'm boasting in a back-handed way.  It's just the opposite. I recognize that I'm not entitled to this standard of living and I'm grateful for it.

And it was a blessing to be able to shrug last night and know that we could buy a new computer cord without economizing somewhere else.  Maybe the real blessing is in recognizing what a blessing that is.