Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Why I'm Settling for Good Enough | My 3 Little Birds- Self ...

Last year we drove country roads in search of a Christmas tree. We?d dressed in puffy vests and flannel, laced up boots for weather we rarely see here on the fringes of Appalachia. We?d told the kids that adventure awaited, the kind to be recorded for posterity in family photographs.

Instead we got lost, almost ran out of gas, and confronted rushing water that closed the road in two places. We returned to town and bought a tree from a very nice boy scout at a roadside stand.

This year we trekked to the bowels of the basement and hauled our old phony up a flight of stairs. I don?t have it in me to wrangle pine needles and sticky sap and the gnawing fear that the thing will go up in flames (am I the only person with this worry?).

Purchased in a post-Christmas closeout the first year we were married, our tree is a little worn for the wear. Some of its branches are mangled beyond repair, and little green whispers of Christmas past cover the hardwood below it. Still I fluffed it up as best I could, strung lights and ancient garland my mother gifted me. I didn?t even open half the boxes of decorations, settling on a few favorites both old and new.

We unceremoniously decked our halls and for once, this seems like enough.

One secret of adulthood is this: that good enough is almost always ok. Sometimes life doesn?t require great quests on gravel roads, or Christmas trees that smell like the real thing. Sometimes good enough is an old tree from the box in the basement, assembled one branch at a time and placed in a corner of our brand-new old home. Sometimes good enough is a shabby thing that has?witnessed eight seasons of this little family of five learning to love each other well enough to smooth over the rough spots in life.


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