Every now and again you have one of those moments that really brings you down to point zero in your life...I had one of those moments today. It's Saturday, the weather is grey, cloudy, rainy, and windy, not to mention sticky. My wife and I realize that, at 8:45ish this morning, we were going to need to do something to entertain ourselves and our two children - one of which is just a few days over 8 months, the other a few months away from hitting 4. The baby we really weren't worried about, but our eldest, that's another story.
Normally on days like this, as they fall against a weekend, we pack up the Santa Fe, and head towards a destination just to get out of the house and have something to do while the weather continues on its horrendous plan of trying to ruin family time on the weekend. However, today's a little different. We're really not in a place, monetarily, to do such things, but, out of curiosity of his thoughts, we asked our eldest what he wanted to do today...he said go to the bookstore. Now, what you have to know is that, by bookstore, he meant Barnes and Noble, which is located about an hour from here. It's one of our typical go-to spots during these weather events, and he likes to play with the Thomas the Train Engine table they have set up there. In addition to Thomas, he always gets a treat when he goes, because it's kind of a "treat-like" day for the family. So, when he said that he wanted to go to the bookstore, we had to tell him that we couldn't. He asked why. So, we told him that we didn't have the money to go to the bookstore today. He looked at us kind of wearily, and promptly followed our statement with, "I'll get you money..."
We watched as our son took off down the hallway, and came back with a small, red-canvis like bag I have him a while ago, which holds 7 tokens that we got from House on the Rock a few years ago. He hands the bag over to my wife, and follows it with, "can we go to the bookstore?"
Our son, with no idea of what money really is, offered to give us his treasure of "money" in hopes that he could help us all go to the bookstore. It was at this moment I had one of "those moments" where you really can feel your heart-strings get yanked in all kinds of ways left-of-center. I hate telling our kids no for things that I really wish I could give them. Especially when that something really doesn't cost that much. But, when you're in a position where every penny counts, you can't always make those things happen. Even if they're not that expensive. So, there we were, our son giving us his money, trying to help out mom and dad, and we still had to say that we couldn't. He didn't seem to phased by this, but I can tell you that I was being torn up on the inside.
It's in these moments that you realize how truly blessed you are with some of the smaller things in life. My wife and I may not be in a position to give our children everything we want to give them right now, but, we have children that would give us their treasure, in hopes of helping out mom and dad - even in the form of seven House on the Rock tokens. It makes you realize that sometimes the best things in life, come from the smallest of reactions and situations. We may not have gone to the bookstore today, but today, my wife and I had the opportunity to spend the day with our kids, who love us with no regard to anything other than we're mom and dad. To that end, I'd happily take seven tokens over any paycheck, because money couldn't buy what those tokens paid for. Cheers.
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