a little perspective

Every once in a while I get a little wistful for the day when we'll have a nice place to live and nice things in our house. I mean, not that I don't like our little basement apartment with no yard and short ceilings and bad lighting and old appliances and splotchy walls and ugly curtains (I think I just realized this week how ugly some of them are), but sometimes I look at people about my age who actually have real homes that are nicely furnished and think, wow, we're just never going to get there. And why can't we live someplace nice now?

I was talking with my sage aunt Becky about this a little bit ago, and she had an interesting story to share. Several years ago they decided they wanted to buy some nice couches for their family room. They had some money saved for them, and they really, really wanted some good couches to replace the old ones that were there. They shopped around for a long time, and finally found exactly what they wanted. They were really excited about getting these couches, and finally they were delivered and in their house. They sat down on them and were like "hm these are nice," and then went about their day. It didn't change their lives at all and it didn't make them happier, even though they liked them and getting new couches had been something they wanted for a really long time. In the end, they liked their couches but it just wasn't that big a deal. Although I must say, their couches are very comfortable.

That was a really good story for me to hear, because even though I *know* that things don't make you happy, sometimes you can sort of forget that. And on days like today when I'm feeling a wee bit wistful, it's a good story to help me remember that things don't make you happy. Also, its much better to be living with DI and garage sale items in a small apartment than to be in debt or spending a lot on non-essentials.

And for the record, we really do like our apartment--it really is a good place for us right now.