A Day Like This

by Kelley McNeil

The simple grocery store, once thought charming, was criticized for its lack of organic tamari. The schools where boys went fishing after the 3:00 p.m. bell didn’t offer enough language classes. Bank accounts drained into broken wells and worn-out furnaces. Marriages disintegrated under the weight of all the snow, breaking at the seams beneath the farmhouse walls they’d tried so hard to mend on their empty fields of dreams.

My heart was breaking because I stood there in love with this man, knowing I’d lost him. Some things, like fences and furnaces, old houses and marriages, were too broken to fix.

Every life has choices. Do we take the job or don’t we? Do we buy the house or not? Do we break off the engagement or go through with the wedding? Do we go through the yellow light or wait? Our path—the people we love, the life we lead—is forever altered by each decision large and small.

Some choices are easier than others. The key is to be at peace in the moment. To celebrate the here and now. No life is perfect, I’ve learned. But if you’re lucky, it can come pretty close.