Flat Tires.

So.  Now I know how to fix a flat tire.  I also am now very well aware of the dangers that can arise from not putting the e-break on when a car is precariously positioned on a few strips of metal (known as a jack); it falls.  And expensive/exhaustive reparations are in order. 

Last night's adventures had me worried and guilt-ridden for a while.  I'm beginning to feel that I am a very expensive child.  Not because I am demanding or spoiled, but largely because I am prone to breaking things, prone to acting without thinking first, prone to getting myself in to all sorts of costly scrapes.  All this weighed on me enough last night that, after refusing my offer to pay for it, my parents were attempting to console me, the one with no car and no damage.
This morning, however, my dad came home and told me about a man in our ward who is undergoing triple bypass surgery.
And I thought of him.  And of the lady that appeared Oprah once who had her face ripped off by her friend's pet monkey.  And of Haitians.  Of the children I worked with in Iasi, who had never known the love of a mother and father or any sort of family at all. 

These things make me realize how blessed I am and how ungrateful it would seem for me to pity myself for so many precious minutes.

So I started creating this list:

the dear people who surround me and are so good to me.

use of my limbs and my senses.

heaters, scarves, blankets--warmth in general.

books.

books on tape.

my little sister's incessant humming.

the smell of bengal spice tea.

truth.

memories captured in pictures.

palmer's cocoa butter formula.

pippen.

all dogs.

all animals.

optimism.

--blessings, things that I love.  things that make me happy.  and just now I feel I could handle anything. 

What makes you happy?