“Geez, why can’t he drive himself to Driver’s Ed?” Jenny reaches over to turn up the radio.
“Well, yeah. That probably wouldn’t work. Thing is, life is kinda full of inconveniences. You can be annoyed by all of ’em, or you can decide to look at the little opportunities hiding in them.”
“What do you mean?”
We are sitting at a light that seems to be taking forever. “We have to do this twice a day – take Will to class and then pick him up an hour and a half later. We could choose to be cranky about it, but I like to think that it’s nice to have this car time. You know… we see how the rest of the world scurries from school to soccer to the grocery store and home. It makes me appreciate our unconventional life. Besides, we get to listen to music, sing, laugh and complain about never finding a good song on the radio when you want one.”
“Yeah, I guess I see what you mean.”
“Sorry about my singing.”
“You aren’t that bad, mom.”
“Maybe you should sing louder than me.”
At the next light I say, “You know, it’s kinda like the kitchen remodel. We can be annoyed at how inconvenient it is to cook or make a bowl of cereal, or even put water on for coffee. Or we can get excited about the process. I love that time when Will is at Driver’s Ed and you and I are listening to Pandora and painting. Those are gonna be great memories. And I love Will coming home and seeing what we’ve gotten done while he’s been away.”
“I guess. It’ll be nice when it’s done. But I do love the painting.”
“And what other mom decides to make biscuits from scratch during a kitchen remodel? I mean those moments make fun conversations.”
“Hey, I need the pastry blender.”
“Mom, I’ll get it.”
“Thanks, honey. It’s in my bedroom.”
From the bedroom, “Mom! What’s a pastry blender?”
Yelling back to the bedroom, “It’s the thing that looks kinda like a slinky with a wooden handle.”
“Got it!”
“See? We’d be missing out on all that fun, if we hadn’t undergone all this torture.”
“I think I get it. You have an interesting perspective, mom.”
Those INFJ traits make for a tenacious individual when it comes to working on relationships. She would never run out of the desire to try. She’d contort herself into whatever shape he needed in order to make this work.
