To Be Blessed

When driving near our good friends' house the other day Elina, almost 6, sighed and in a lamenting voice complained, "How come they are so blessed and we are not?"

"Well, what exactly do you mean?" I asked back, bracing myself. I was not able to anticipate the answer. Our friends do not have a bigger house than we, and I honestly prefer our location near the woods and the park. It is true they earn more money and are able to take frequent trips to various destinations throughout the year and can more easily afford fun activities. The parents are also very involved with their children and often take on projects that take up space and time and create more messes than I am patient with. They also only have 2 children, compared to our 4. But none of that was on her mind.

"Well, we only have a big Labrador and they have a really cute small dog that is calm," she began. (Truth be told their dog is old and arthritic.) "And they have two cats and two rabbits and we have none of that." The discussion that followed I tried to point out that one of their cats is crazy (evil) and that the cats have to be separated from the dog or they kill each other and that the rabbits have to be separated from both cats and dog. The 7 year old chimed in that it costs money to feed and immunize these pets, etc. None of this had any power over Elina's outlook.

One of her Kindergarten friends' mother came to the classroom the first day of school after Christmas with the Christmas puppy to show off. That should be firmly against the rules of any school and punishment ought to be severe for breaking it. Elina was in tears that day after school. "I did not even get to hold it! And he gets to have a tiny puppy all his own!"

But we are blessed, too. We have neighbors on our cul de sac. One is a single woman, no kids and two cats. And Elina is over there frequently to play. Another neighbor has two small dogs. Only one day after the comment about not being very blessed that neighbor extended the invite that kids were welcome over there to play with these dogs  a n y t i m e. That, along with the promise that when our Lab Sadie does die, we'll get a small, short haired, non-shedding dog seemed to calm the sadness a bit.

At the utterance of that promise, Mark looked at me like, "Don't you make that promise!" But I replied, "Really? With three daughters you think you can get away with your relationship to your children intact without any sort of pet?"

Happy with the neighbor's dog