The girls brought home a new card game. The name is Stress, and for two minutes everyone's heart rate accelerates. You each have piles of four cards, and are trying to quickly trade them into sets of matching numbers. All the players are madly picking up and putting down cards, focused on their own, occasionally tussling over the same one.

At first you don't have a clear idea of what you want, but you speed up as you hone in on your preferences. Face cards are not more valuable than threes and fours. Color plays no part. 

I find it interesting that the closer people get to securing what they need the less interested they are in what other players have. There are, it turns out, enough cards for everyone. Several times the three of us finished within a fraction of a second, all looking with satisfaction at four complete sets in front of us, yelling the magic word in unison.

"STRESS!"

It reminds me of life. 

The round begins with a jumble. At first glance, you believe you need it all, the job, the house, the perfect relationship, the bonus, the car. But in the process of choosing, and sorting, you begin to lessen your grip on Total Success. Which rhymes with stress. Gradually it seems possible that other people can win too. 

Each of us are in search of attributes and experiences, sometimes scrambling to yank them closer.  Yet as my hair gets grayer I feel less inclined to clutch what a friend has, less grabby about what is not mine. 

You have grandchildren and I do not. Tell me about how cute they are. I was dealt twenty five years of holding babies, which is another kind of sweet. A neighbor vacations in exotic places. How fun to look at the pictures, and still be thankful for the sun on my face in my own back yard as I watch a cloud of birds. Your finances are more stable than mine, yet I have enough. More than enough. Coveting need not rob us of a win win. 

There are blessings aplenty to go around.