Food For Thought

I have two printers. My trusty little HP Photosmart and a honking big Samsung colour laser printer. About a year ago (could be longer) I ran out of black toner for the laser printer and it's been sitting in the corner collecting dust ever since.

A few weeks ago (I say weeks but it may have been months) the husband bought me a replacement cartridge but I never got around to installing it. I had a 50+ page document to print and since my HP is getting low on ink I thought I'd install the new cartridge.

First I had to re-arrange some wires: When I rearranged my office I had always intended for the printers to be plugged into their own power bar so I finagled around until I got this done, then I had to search for the printer's USB cord.

Okay, everything looked good until I noticed that the toner cartridge the husband bought me was the wrong one. I needed the document for tomorrow. Should I use up the last of my HP ink or should I go to Staples to exchange the cartridge?

I went to Staples. I didn't have the receipt but they gave me a gift card with the difference on it (the correct cartridge was cheaper).

The point to all this (you knew I'd get to the point eventually, didn't you?) is that on the way home I started thinking about the balance of good and bad. It was good the husband bought me a new cartridge, bad that it was the wrong one and I had to go all the way across town to Staples, but I got the bonus good of a gift card.

Taking it further, I started thinking of the balance of good and bad as it applies to life. There's no question that you can't have one without the other. A lot of the time it seems like we get more bad than good, but that's because the bad tends to stick in our minds more. Things happen for a reason, both good and bad.

It was good when I first got the job at the call centre, but it turned bad when I had to take a stress leave. It was bad when I got terminated from my job, but the opportunities that are opening up for me are very good.

Everything has purpose. Call it Fate, call it Karma, call it God's will if you like. Even though it may not feel like it at the time, maybe things, both good and bad, happen to make us better people.

Just saying.