The 5 Things We Need to Be Happy and Money Isn't One of Them by Patricia Lorenz

Author:Patricia Lorenz [Lorenz, Patricia]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-8249-0453-1
Publisher: Guideposts
Published: 2008-07-24T16:00:00+00:00

On Ducks’ Wings

WHEN I WAS A KID my mother was in charge of the family budget. She kept cash in a dozen envelopes, including one that said, Repair and Improvement. That envelope fascinated and somewhat irritated me. I couldn’t understand why you needed to stick perfectly good money in an envelope that might not be needed all month, money I thought should be spent on things like a hula hoop or a pogo stick, instead of languishing there waiting for something around the house to break. And what could possibly need improving? I wondered. I thought everything in the house my dad built was perfect.

But in spite of my childish rationalizations, I certainly learned a great lesson from my frugal mother about planning ahead and being ready for emergencies or needs that change with the wind.

Another important life lesson I learned from my mother was Don’t take your ducks to eagle school. Oh sure, you can send your ducks to eagle boot camp, give them a little eagle hat, an eagle badge and a T-shirt that says, Look at me, I’m an eagle. You can give those ducks flying lessons from the top of the tallest tree on the top of the biggest mountain. You can dye their feathers and feed them steroids to grow bigger. But no matter how hard you try, those ducks will never become eagles. They’re still going to be quacking on the pond, moving South for the winter, paddling like crazy underneath the water with their oversize flapping feet, doing what ducks love to do: raising their young in the nearest pond, creek or river.

When I was in grade school, I wanted to be four things when I grew up: a doctor, an airline pilot, a trapeze artist and a writer. I seriously explored the possibilities of all four professions. I eventually learned the lesson about not sending your ducks to eagle school when I discovered that I had no natural talent or ability in math or science. I never got anything higher than a C in all the science classes I took in high school and college. It was obvious: I was never going to be a doctor.

The airline pilot dream lasted through high school when I actually took flying lessons from my dad but soon realized that I’m not mechanically inclined. It still takes me ten minutes to remember which dipstick is the oil and which is the transmission fluid and where each one of them is located when I open the hood on my car. In addition to that, when Dad and I got to the point of “power off stalls” in that little airplane where Dad shut off the engine during flight to teach me how to get it started again by pointing the nose to the ground to build up speed … well, that simple exercise nearly did me in. I was too much of a chicken to be a real pilot.

Trapeze artist? Dad built me a stellar trapeze in

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