Life's Not Fair

There was a time when I would have given anything to have a garage.  We lived in an apartment, up a flight of treacherous, narrow stairs.  And every week I'd come home with a car full of groceries and have to haul them up those stairs, along with a baby or toddler (or both), in the rain or snow or sweltering heat. 

Again and again, I thought to myself "Wouldn't it be nice to have a garage?  To park inside, away from the elements.  To never have to take a newborn out to a parking lot and buckle them into a frozen or broiling hot car."  The idea of pulling into a climate-controlled garage, bringing my baby safely into the house, and carrying my groceries straight to the kitchen without having to go up a flight of cursed stairs seemed like absolute bliss.

The last winter we lived in that apartment, I took two very serious falls down those awful stairs.  Both times I was carrying a baby in my arms.  It was just terrible. Terrible! And I swore I wouldn't go another winter without a garage.  Soon after that we moved into our current house, which has (among other things) a garage! 

It was awesome.  Parking in the garage every  made my life feel complete.  I parked in the garage every single day for two years, and it was lovely. Then one day the weather was nice and I decided to leave the car outside.  And then I piled a little bit of junk in the garage and the car wouldn't quite fit back in.  No big deal.  We just kept parking outside.  Summer turned to fall, fall turned to winter, and I just realized today that we haven't parked our car in the garage this entire winter!

The garage really isn't that messy.  It would only take about an hour to clean and make room for the car, but it's just not worth it to me.  Why?  Because I don't have a baby.  I sleep well at night, so I don't mind getting up early to scrape my car windows.  I have five kids big enough to carry groceries in the house, so the few extra feet of walking from the driveway is no big deal.  No one is too little to be out in the heat or the cold, so it just doesn't matter that much.  Essentially, I have a garage and I don't need it.

It's not fair.
I didn't have it when I really needed it, and now I have it and can't fully appreciate it.

There are millions of families out there who are just like I was.  They would LOVE a garage.  And here I have one, but I don't need it.

It's not fair.

By the time you can afford the trampoline or the swing-set or the clubhouse, your kids may be too old to play with it.

You can finally buy that extra big house just about the time your kids start moving away and you don't need so much space.

You can upgrade to the really good vacuum or washing machine just when your kids stop being so messy.

It's not fair.

If life were fair, young families would have the big houses and all the best conveniences.  But they don't.  Life's not fair.  And that's okay.

It's okay to not have everything you want right away.  Or ever for that matter. Where would the fun in life be if it were all perfection?  You probably wouldn't even know your life was perfect.  You'd probably just want more anyway.  Can you imagine how obnoxious you would be if  your life was all ease and no struggle?

Life's not fair.

And that's okay.





Marcia