When You Choose What You Got

My oven is so old
that it is still lined in contact paper
from the early 1960's!

This is a picture of the inspiration for today's post.

I took the picture for my mother.  We were talking on the telephone and I was trying to explain a loud noise.

"You know the drawer that's under the oven, where you keep pots and pans?"

"You mean the drawer that use to be under the oven?"  My mother obviously has newer appliances than me!

I laughed and told her that my oven was so old . . .

How Old is it?

My oven is so old 

that it is still lined in contact paper 

from the early 1960's!

That conversation brings us to today's post.

I am happy with my life.  I love my home, my husband and my dog.  Yes, there are many things that I do without but I am happy with what I have.

A long time ago, when I was a teenager, my mother taught me an aphorism (one of many) that nags me to face the truth when I am dissatisfied.

"Life is a rip off when you expect to get what you want.  Life works when you choose what you got.  Actually what you got is what you chose.  To move on, choose it."

I have never surrendered my choice about how I feel.  No person, no event, no activity, no circumstance can determine the way that I feel.  To say otherwise is to lie about it.

When I survey my current circumstance, I am free to choose if I am satisfied or not.

I choose to be satisfied.  Imagine, for just a moment, the impact that choice has on my husband.

My husband is permanently disabled after suffering a massive stroke.  He would be devastated if I even intimated that I am dissatisfied.  Like every man, my husband deeply desires to provide for me.  No matter that he has more than he expected, it would devastate him to think that he could not provide for me.

I never tire of his oft repeated declaration to anyone who will listen, "All I ever wanted was a wife, a house and a dog.  I never thought I could have all of this!"

One year after Bruce and I married we rented a small house in a quiet neighborhood within walking distance of a bus stop and our church.  The monthly rent was perfect for our income.  There were no steps up into the house making it easy for Bruce to access.  Neither of us drive but the garage houses a washer and dryer!

Bruce still doesn't know what to make of the yard.  He hasn't acquired the words "yard", "grass", or "lawn".  We have a deep front yard that he has struggled four years to walk across.  He finally conquered the lawn mower for the back yard early this past spring!

We hadn't been in our home long when we were given a dog.  She was a bit bigger than we had talked about.  We had agreed on a Yorkie but were offered a Basset Hound.

I could carry on for hundreds of blog posts on the blessings we have received since we married but there are other days for that.

It is true that Bruce and I do not have many things that other people take for granted.  But, as he says, he has more than he could have hoped for.

And to be completely truthful, so do I.