We played Powerball…and now we’re rich

Like many other people, we bought a Powerball ticket. Then we did a little dreaming. What would we do if we won that kind of money? We tossed our ideas around the dinner table.

We’d buy a beach house. We’d travel Europe together.

We’d get a new car or two.

We would donate money—to the educational institutions we love, to the Church, and to our favorite organization doing work for children in China.

Well, we didn’t win the lottery. Still, we enjoyed imagining. And, as we listed out our dreams for our hypothetical winnings, I couldn’t help thinking that I already have everything we need—and then some. Truly we have more blessings than we can count.

We know how wonderful the beach is because we’ve been there. We know how exhilarating travel can be because we’ve tried it. It was clear to me that we would want to use that mythical money to be able to spend more time together, just being a family. All anyone really wants is more time together.

One of my favorite parts of our dinner conversation was hearing our sons say that no matter what we won, they would want to stay at their schools. Knowing that your children are content at school is worth more than any amount of money.

As I sat there listening to my sons debate how many bags of a thousand dollars make up $1 billion, all I could feel was tremendous gratitude. Yes, life isn’t perfect. Yes, we have our struggles and sadness and challenges. Yes, we have worries about tomorrow. After all, “the world is thy ship and not thy home,” as St. Therese of Lisieux said. But every day is a win in so many ways.

So, maybe we didn’t win the lottery. But we have each other. We have dreams and hope for the future. And this week a wonderful repairman arrived at my door to fix our dishwasher, which had been broken for more than a month. Who needs billions of dollars? I’m over here loading a functional dishwasher and feeling like a queen.

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