The Unspoken Challenges

It is 6:00 a.m. and I am exhausted. I am tremendously thankful I was able to include coffee in my groceries this week. Last Saturday, I stared at the shelf at No Frills for quite some time, debating its value. It has been worth every penny.

There is an amusing little phrase that four and five-year-olds often use when they are insistent on a fact. They say, "It's true, for real life." While grammatically incorrect, it is always emphatically spoken. I have known many four and five-year-olds who have considered themselves to be the quite the authorities on a quite a range of topics. Today, I am thinking about all the little details that might be different if this challenge was not a challenge, but a reality.

If this was true, "for real life. . . ."

-My foot, which was injured at the beginning of this challenge, would still be sore. I am not certain I would be walking to work. I might even be missing work.
-I might have been caught throwing my garbage into the dumpster at work. There may have been repercussions to this decision.
-I might not have been offered transportation, making me even more early than I am.
-My children, who are so fortunate to be in dance and music lessons at night, would probably not be doing these things.
-I might have run out of milk. To be honest, my children drank all of the milk within the first two days of the challenge, and I had to remind them that things were different now. You can't just take what you want. You need to plan for everything. We happened to have one extra milk downstairs, but I deducted $3.50 for it, so I am now sitting at $13.78. I already know I need to purchase an important item by tomorrow.
-I would be worrying about Valentine's Day. I purchased the Valentines for my class and Monika's class last week. I know it would have also become a "challenge" this week, not to mention cards and gifts for family members.
-I was prepared last weekend for this Thursday's College Class. Normally, I would be spending an additional two hours during the week to get ready. Had I needed to do this tonight I know I would be completely overwhelmed.
-My growing fatigue is making me more impatient, but I know that this challenge will soon come to an end. I can tell myself that I only have a few more days, but if this was a real context, that thought wouldn't exist at all.

I am certain that there would be other realities that I might not be considering right now. Perhaps someone would be calling about a bill I hadn't paid. Perhaps I might be avoiding someone at work because I still owed them money. Maybe my child would need to stay home "sick" on Valentine's Day because she didn't have anything to give out. I might even run out of toilet paper before the weekend. These are the unknown, unspoken aspects that I am sure would be difficult to talk about.

I opened my challenge envelope ready to deal with what was to come. As I pulled out the slip of paper, tears welled up in my eyes. It was the last thing I expected. It was a gift.

Tonight, I will tell you all about the gift.