Gratefulness

The news is full of grim things, and the weather is steamy-hot. Maybe you would like a change of pace.

Saturday my son and I went into Wal-Mart to grab something quick for dinner. We paid for a couple of TV dinners, and then I was going to buy a shake at Arby's for our dessert. While we were waiting in the drive-thru lane, I pulled out my wallet to pay for it, and discovered numbly that the ten-dollar bill I had just counted out before leaving the house was gone!

I realized that when I had taken out the money to pay in Wal-Mart, the ten must have pulled out, too, and fallen on the floor. My heart sank, and then I had to start digging for quarters to be able to pay for the shake.

We went back to Wal-Mart, but I admit my hopes were not high. A ten dollar bill on the floor on a Saturday evening -- that's kind of like a two-dollar skein of hand-painted sock yarn.

My son said, "I know how you feel, Mom. That's how I felt when I lost my good Yu-Gi-Oh card at school." [pause] "Only this is worse."

Yeah, about like that.

We walked through the heat back to the register, and I asked the cashier if anyone had just picked up ten dollars. She turned around and recognized me, and then she said, "Oh!" and handed it to me. She had it sitting right next to her register.

Tears came to my eyes. If you read the newspapers or listen to the news, about all you hear about is how rotten everything and everyone is. When your expectations are low, having them exceeded so drastically really hits you, I guess.

I said thank you about six times. Then we went home and ate supper and drank melted Arby's shake. Then I wrote a letter to the manager.

When I'm not listening to the news, the world is not so bad after all.