ESSAY | MONTHLY THEME | PROMPTLY WRITTEN
Cruisin’ With Gratitude
Gratitude Journal — Day 3
A little over a week ago, my brother-in-law gave us his third-hand car — a PT Cruiser. They are a lovely car, silvery-grey and quite androgynous (I know, sounds strange for a car, but they are neither female nor male in nature so Maddy and I have decided that the Cruiser is a non-binary, androgynous, non-Earthly entity — we still have not named them). We didn’t ask for the car. My BIL just decided we needed it and since he had more than enough cars in his driveway, he gave them to us.
This makes what occurred with Lucy (our Hyundai) yesterday seem a bit odd or perhaps my BIL had a psychic vision that we would need a car soon. Regardless of how it happened, it was quite synchronistic! Lucy’s trip to the mechanic today sealed her fate. The underside of her belly is all corroded. The mechanic quoted a figure to fix her that was way out of our budget and more than Lucy ‘is worth’ or so the mechanic said (if we could have afforded it, we would have had her repaired. She IS worth it!). So it looks like Lucy is bound for the Big Junkyard in the Sky. We cleared out all of her innards and gave her a fond farewell.
We took our first cruise in PT today for another of my doctor's appointments. They drove like a dream. PT needs some new front tires, but other than that, they seem to be in good shape. We will give them a tune-up soon and have all of their underbelly a good check over.
I am overcome with gratitude and emotions right now. We’ve known for a while that we needed another car. Mostly to give poor old Lucy a break, but I had no idea how soon poor Lucy would need to be completely retired. The Universe answered our needs just in time. We will keep PT well-maintained and I just hope they will give us as many years of devotion as Lucy did.
©2021 Lori Carlson. All Rights Reserved.
This is in response to the November Monthly Theme prompt — Keep a 30-day Gratitude journal. I am aiming to commit to this. Wish me luck!
Lori Carlson writes Poetry, Fiction, Articles, Creative Non-Fiction, and Personal Essays. Most of her topics are centered around Relationships, Spirituality, Life Lessons, Mental Health, Nature, Loss, Death, and the LGBTQ+ community. She is the Owner/Editor of Promptly Written and Not For Bedtime Stories. Check out her personal Medium blog here.
