Sometimes you just need to laugh. Like me. Right now. After responsibly warming up the car for 15 minutes since its 17° out, I pulled carefully out onto our icy road and proceeded approximately 1/6 of a mile toward town before the car just up and quit! Pfffftt! Just like that, no power! SOoooo, my son canceled his appointment. I canceled my appointment, and we waited for my wonderful almost-son, who is married to my wonderful daughter and the father of my three wonderful grandsons, to rescue me, which he did by towing us back home and then offering me some words of encouragement, which, by that time, I direly needed. The tow guy will be here in a bit to take my poor car to my mechanic, who hopefully will find nothing major wrong with it other than maybe the fuel filter. And, if I’m lucky, I’ll get it back before I need to be in Goshen tomorrow afternoon.

Now, before you suggest it, YES, I could get a new car, but I have no plans to until this one dies, and I’m pretty sure that won’t be for awhile since my car only has 60,000 miles on it. I KNOW it’s 15 years old, but my cherry red Crown Victoria has sentimental value. You see, it was my mom’s car that she drove until she was 98. She bought it when she was 96 when she got a flat tire on her three-year-old car and my uncle jokingly told her it was time to trade it in! So, she did, and I’ve been benefiting from Mother’s purchase ever since she passed away at 102.

Let me tell you, that Crown Vic rides like a limo! Besides, it gets a respectable 22 miles to the gallon, which is a lot more than those gas-guzzling SUVs get! I have noticed that my car seems to be getting longer, but then I realized it only seems that way because cars are shrinking by the year! Pity. If they keep it up, they’ll be the same size as my riding lawn mower, but I digress.

In a nutshell, I am thankful, not that the car is out of commission but because I’m not! I can look out on this blue Indiana sky that does not have even one cloud on the horizon and thank God that I have a car that needs fixing, let alone a wonderful family, friends who laugh and cry with me, a church home that never ceases to amaze and inspire me, a warm home, pets that irritate the stew out of me one minute and climb in my lap the next, and just way too many blessings to even count!

I guess my message to all of you is hang in there, and while you’re hanging in there, be thankful for what you do have and encourage someone else to do the same. Wow, that’s pretty cool…you can pay it forward without a cent in your pocket! There’s something else I’d like to say, and this is it–if you need help, ASK! I might still be sitting smack dab in the middle of the road if I had not asked for help. Don’t let pride stand in the way of not only your blessing but the person who will be blessed for helping you. Got it?