When you are older you have accumulated a lot of memories. Some are pleasant memories and some are not so pleasant memories.
And some are both unpleasant and pleasant at the same time. Like once when I was taking my son and his friend to Walmart.
We all know that a Walmart parking lot is the size of a football field.
There are three doors, one on each end of the building and one in the middle.
On this particular day as we were shopping you could.hear thundering and lighting. There was no rain forecasted but you could clearly here that it was raining outside.
We got what we came for and got in line to checkout. We were hoping it would stop raining by the time we got ready to go out to the car.
I picked the aisle closest door to where we parked outside. I was glad we had found a parking spot near the front when we came here.
As we got done checking out and went to the exit we could see about thirty people standing around outside by the carts.
Although the thunder and lightning had stopped it was still raining. So we stood with them waiting for the rain to slow down.
The boys and I decided we were parked close enough that we didn't want to keep waiting. We decided we wouldn't melt if we did get wet.
We imagined the others waiting would notice us as we got wet heading out to our car.
We headed out to my car parked about four cars back on the row of cars right in front of us. Although a big bronco was blocking our view, we knew we parked right by the door the fourth car back.
But when we stepped around the bronco, it wasn't my car. We looked around at the rows around us to see if we were in fourth spot on different row.
But NOPE. We didn't see my car anywhere. We were all totally drenched by this point and it was still steadily raining.
Then it dawned on me that I had parked close to the door alright. But it was the door in the garden side.
Which was a football field away.
Me and the boys looked at each other and said we are already soaking wet let's just walk there instead of walking through the store to get there.
We stepped in so many water puddles along the way. We did enjoy ourselves getting to stomp in all the rain puddles.
We tried to keep the items in our bags that we had bought dry, but we couldn't.
But me and my son talk about that memory together several times a year when we are out at a store and it rains.
It makes us both smile from ear to ear.
That day we could remember angrily how we had to walk a football field in the pouring rain.
But instead of it being an angry memory we both remember it as a treasured memory of a great day we spent together having fun stomping in the rain.
When life gives you lemons you can make the best lemonade to enjoy.
Today the dentist visit was necessary out of pain but it turned out to be necessary to have one of the most treasured memories that I will never forget.
Sometimes to get you where you need to be your journey will be difficult at times. But it's part of the process necessary to get you there.
