Perspective

I found out this morning that the flight I'm taking on Friday back to the States with the kids (and no husband - he's coming a day later) has no in-seat entertainment. On flights that do, I can put our kids in their assigned seats and see them again when I get off the plane. This changes the game considerably. We get on at 1:40 p.m. and land many hours later (11? 12? 13? not sure) in San Francisco. At some point they will fall asleep, but until then we need to have enough books and games packed to keep them from driving each other and me crazy (to their credit, they are very good fliers, but everyone has their limit).

On a very pleasant run to the park just now (Turkey Trot here I come) it hit me that I really have no reason to complain. I mean really - getting back from the Orient used to take months. On a boat. Sometimes people died on the way. At best they spent part of it heaving over the railings. Can you imagine trying to entertain your kids on a boat for months? How tired would you get of hearing, "How much further is it?"

So I'm choosing to be thankful that I can manage a trip home for a week and it takes me less than a day to get there. No boats, no heaving (hopefully), no all sorts of things that could happen if the trip took months. It's all in how you look at it.