Luky;
A thief in the night
Some years ago the milk coupons were stolen from our bottles. At the crack of dawn the milkman knocked us up and demanded more coupons.
"The coupons have been stolen from every house in your street", he told us.
"That must have been at 2am when I had to get up to tell Bully and Snowy to stop their din", I said.
"No it wasn't", my husband argued, "I came home from night shift at five and checked the bottles. The tokens were there then, and it's not quite six now. There's something funny going on".
Unhappily he produced more tokens.
For quite a while afterwards I could hear him talking to himself, saying things like "there's more to this than meets the eye."
He knows better than to talk to me that way. In a life as fraught with pain and disappointments as that of any other human being, I've firmly taught myself not to look on unfairness with smouldering rage, but always to look forward.
What can't be cured must be endured. Let's hope the poor soul who pinched the coupons learns honesty and finds mercy and forgiveness. I have known friends who have been left in financial straits after the dishonesty of others. I, too, have had my own tragedies. For years when I looked at difficulties, questions came soaring to my mind. Then I began trying to accept the inevitable.
What is it they say? "Lord, grant me the courage to change the things that I can change, to accept the things I can't, and the wisdom to know the difference."
It is the most comforting prayer I know, and has saved me much frustration.
After all, if God had wanted things to be different, he could have granted a miracle.
I learned this attitude from my parents. My dad, who died a lingering death of cancer, never - but never - complained.
If the pain and fear got too much, he'd pick on something unimportant and explode about that just to get a little relief.
Like the Christmas when my mother arrived late at the hospital for lack of transport.
"Everything is wrong today", he burst out angrily, "Look, even the little angel they hung over my bed has a broken wing!"
After which they both laughed until the tears poured down their faces. But he never mentioned the real cause of his grief.
Mom laughed
Another time my mother laughed like that was when I was small. She had a porcelain dinner service, a wedding gift and the pride of her heart.
She and Mrs. Alberts our char, were washing up after a dinner party and packed the entire service on to a tea trolley.
In passing Mrs Alberts lost her footing and fell against the trolley, which overturned.
Everything was broken except for the meat platter and the gravy boat still in the sink.
We used them for years afterwards.
Holding her apron to her eyes, Mrs Alberts sank among the smithereens and sobbed her heart out.
"I'll never be able to replace any of this!" she wept.
"Oh, what shall I do?"
Suddenly my mother burst out laughing. Sobering up, she said: "Well, the first thing I'd suggest would be to sweep up the debris.
"And wipe away those tears, please; you've done me a favour.
I've never been able to fancy that pattern.
Besides, didn't you know smithereens bring luck?"
So you've been treated unkindly, unfairly, with indignity or injustice. Are you going to let yourself be turned into a wreck on that account?
You can't help what happens to you, but you can help the way you react.
So your life is destroyed, and your heart is broken. Why not mend the cracks as best you can, and carry on from there? What the heck! Smithereens bring luck.
As for the one who pinched the entire street's milk tokens, I hope all that milk made him or her very healthy.
*Name has been changed
*Photograph taken by Catherine Nicolette - please feel free to use copyright free for any worthy purpose
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