Contentment

Contentment is an elusive thing - but sometimes it just creeps up on you - and then you must grab it and hold it close.

 Our world doesn't encourage (at all!) contentment.  If things are "good" we either begin striving for something more or fearing the loss of what we have.  I'm not sure that this is a purely modern reality - after all the Greeks wrote about hubris - warning that if you were too smug about your situation the gods would surely smack you down.  Perhaps this is why complaint is more common than contentment, even among the well-off.  Well, I mean, after all, surely there's always something to complain about, right?And I am as guilty as most.

Only right now, I'm experiencing contentment.  Jobs are going well for both DH and me.  The offspring are generally doing well - see below.  Prince 83 is not completely recovered from his lengthy illness but is improving.  And there is a little money to do some much needed and long awaited repairs and improvements to the house.

With five kids, Catholic school/and college tuitions and many years as a SAHM, I'm used to sorting through what I/we NEED from what I/we want.  And I'm far enough down the road not to lay awake at night dreaming of designer purses/clothes/shoes that I can't afford.  Heck, I don't even lay awake longing for stuff I can't buy at Target! But my desire for certain amenities, long deferred, like drapes on the front windows or a matching patio set has only been on hold, not eliminated. I'd like to think that my contentment is not contingent upon finances.  I am sad to report that it appears to be - quite contingent.  Working on that.