The Attitude of Gratitude

Yesterday my car was due for the first yearly inspection. You might remember my ramblings about scraping together the money for this comparatively huge and unforeseen investment, accompanied by little miracles and cosmic signs, impersonated by coins; I stumbled upon in the middle of the street, that told me to have faith in the abundance of the universe. Well, maybe not.

Anyhow, I had made the appointment with the garage, and the service staff had booked one of their rental cars for that day. But around noon I received a call from them to have me know, that the car they had put on hold for me was still used by another customer, who's car repair seemed to take longer than expected. I was to pick up a car at the car rental across the street, but they had made all the necesarry arrangements.

When I got there I found out, that I could have booked a way cheaper car, had I known this a week earlier. A nice and fancy little Smart that always reminds me of a sneaker. It would have been fun to ride that little nippy piece of technology and I could have saved money as well. But they are highly in demand and naturally there wasn't one of these models available at such a short notice - like NOW! :-)))

You can imagine my disappointment when I was "fobbed off" with a Mazda, that is supposedly the same build as my car, but a bit more affordable with way more technology. One year ago there were some people who advised me to buy this car in order to save some money. The testride didn't convince me so I stuck to my first choice, but it wasn't that bad a car, and my choice was rather driven by intuition than reason. Yesterday I didn't feel comfortable in that vehicle at all. First of all it was less spacious and everything felt like plastic. I mean even more like plastic than the plastic in my car. If that does make any sense to you.

But then I remembered that the universe has only one interest which is my well-being, my fun, and my growth (ok that makes three - lol). Why would it deprive me from a spin with a hip four-wheeler, if there wasn't any piece of the action in the deal for me? I thought about the considerable contrast between my car and this unwieldy model, when I finally got it. It was all arranged in order to show me, that my decision - based on feeling and not on thinking - last year was absolutely right. I feel gratitude whenever I drive my car and I never felt sorrry for the amount of money I could have saved by buying the cheaper version, but this assurance was even enhanced by that experience.

I admit, I am sometimes a bit slow on the uptake, but now the penny has dropped, so next year I will make the rental car arrangement on my own and get the fun-ride-sneaker-shoe, that I wouldn't like to own anyway, but just for the experience........