I was laid off on November 7. That afternoon, I walked to pick up the twins from school and took this photo of the school’s little succulent garden.
Plants block a few letters, but the message is clear:
Gratitude turns what we have into enough
This is not strictly true, obviously. Gratitude doesn’t feed someone who is starving. I still need to find work even if we aren’t going to sell our house. But I very quickly realized I do have enough because I have the skills and talents to get work. Whether I find another full-time job or build a business out of part-time work, we’ll make it work.
It’s been slow, but our construction also made some progress this week:
Maybe it doesn’t look like progress, but the siding needs to come off before workers can put stucco back on. The new space is still months away, of course. When it’s done, we could rent it out in a pinch. That would be disappointing, but much better not having money to pay the mortgage.
Speaking of which, I cancelled the our cable TV package. Baseball season is over and we have plenty of things we can watch on our remaining subscription services. With the money I saved, we can pay for a lot of other forms of entertainment too.
Sometimes a brighter future requires a bit of destruction. When we can’t bring ourselves to initiate uncomfortable change, I’m grateful to see hope through the disappointment. Not having a job isn’t great, but it’s been wonderful to have a handful of solid leads to get my business started in 2024. For now, at least, this is enough.