Why I'm grateful for my car payment

I finally said goodbye to my faithful old Subaru. We bought her in 2015 with the support of my then in-laws. My girls and I named her Suki and she carried us all safely for many miles and many memories. My water broke with Kate while I was loading Ella up into her for the long trek from Bellaire out to Shady Oak in Richmond, something we did for months until we moved to Sugar Land. She carried me safely to countless women's homes when I was doing mobile momma massage. She witnessed hours of connecting with friends over Marco Polo, singing at the top of my lungs, and car dance parties with my girls. She held the memories of my rage and screams while amidst the hidden abuse, and the surrender and sorrows of my marriage ending.

After a replaced transmission and many other repairs over the years, it was finally time to let her go and upgrade to something safe and reliable. 

So now I have a new Honda CR-V and it's super nice…along with a super nice monthly car payment. 

I could feel heavy about this, and honestly I do feel that twinge of, Can I really do this? Like, really?

I also know enough to know that I have a choice in how I respond to this new reality.  

Adjusting to new realities is something I've been getting a lot of practice with lately. 

I know, in all things, I can choose gratitude. I can choose to reframe a car payment from a burden to a blessing. 

I feel like a queen driving around in this thing. I feel safe, loved and held. 

Living with gratitude is a practice, and I am committed to using these monthly allocations of my money to this car as a reminder of how far I've come and what a blessing it is to have a safe, reliable car. I'll also use it as a chance to remind myself how capable I am, how loved, and how free. 

I am reminded of another simple, helpful practice that I learned from Danielle LaPorte's book, How to Be Loving. It's called May All Be So Blessed, and it goes like this.

Call to mind a blessing or gratitude and after naming it, we say, may all be so blessed.  

Thank you for this nourishing meal. May all be so blessed.

I'm so thankful for my healing. May all be so blessed.

What a gift to have meaningful work that I love. May all be so blessed.

Thank you for the ability to hear truth and receive wisdom in many different spiritual practices. May all be so blessed.

Me and Suki in 2022 reunited after she got her new transmission in San Antonio. 

Notice her very cracked windshield.

And because music is the answer to our problems, or at the very least a remedy, here is a little Gratitude playlist I made of some of my recent favorites to get in the flow of gratitude.  I hope you enjoy listening. May all be so blessed.

And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And we are thankful.   Colossians 3:15