The Unwanted is Needed

I got new tires today. I didn't want them and they certainly weren't what I wanted for my early birthday gift; but I needed them. In life there are things we don't want necessarily, but we need them and this morning as I drove to get them I was bummed at my unwanted gift ahead of me. I have, though, been wreckless with my old, worn tires for the past week in the unusual amount of snow and ice that Kansas City has, and have been lucky that nothing worse has come out of my 180 or sliding into multiple snow drifts. I have to say, when I drove home from work tonight and slammed on my brakes in front of my house, I was so pleased that I stopped and didn't end up in my yard. After this test, I have to say: For my 24th birthday I am happy to have a new set of four tires!

Life is full of things we don't want but need. Without unwanted things we would never know the necessities of life. Take for instance a bad friend. We have all had a bad friend in our lives; one who froze our underwear at slumber parties or one that started that nasty rumor about us. We of course do not want these people in our lives, but we actually need them in order for us to see what good friends look like, do for us and how they are different.

It's like imagining a life where failures didn't exist. We all have failures. I think those who have failed more often are the ones who are more successful. No one wakes up in the morning and says "I think I am going to fail today." We don't want failures in our lives, but they actually awaken us to the real pleasures of succeeding. How do you know what is great when you haven't experienced horrible?

In college, I got fired from my job at a restaurant for a reason to not really be fired for; basically a misunderstanding between my manager, my room mate/best friend (who also worked there) and me. I was devastated; not to have been fired for a flaky reason, but because I loved working there. There were millions of reasons why I loved working there, but I have to admit I was beginning to slack and probably take my job security a little for granted. After my termination, I quickly got a job at another restaurant down the street. I absolutely hated it and barely got through training. On my last day of training I left and headed back to my previous restaurant and pretty much begged for my job back. I got yelled at and threatened that if I didn't work harder than I ever had, then I was out; again. But all and all, I got my job back! Obviously, I didn't want to get fired and have to beg for my job back, but in the end I had my job back and was willing to work as hard as I needed, because I saw what not working there looked like and I didn't want that!

Things you don't want in your life show you what you need. Life is un-perfect and if it was perfect we wouldn't appreciate it. Things we don't want are a necessity. Just like my birthday present. I didn't want tires, but once I slammed my brakes on, I realized how bad I needed new tires; only, of course, after I had skidded down hills of ice with the old ones and gracefully haulted to stop with the new ones.

I just need to look at the things in my life that are unwanted as something that gets me more familiar with the things I need.