Choosing a root-canal

Today I had an appointment at the dentists. I’ve been postponing this appointment for a year now, because the dentist had told me that I’d have to choose between having a root-canal or pulling the tooth and I found it quite challenging to decide. By pulling the tooth I’d get out of the whole affair fairly quickly and cheap, but would lose the tooth forever. And this was my last mole in the upper left jaw. (Excuse my dental-English!) On the other hand a root-canal is very expensive and I haven’t saved up for big dental bills, being a single mom and a student.
Anywho, today was the big day, and I asked the dentist to check out the tooth and give me an estimate on what my different choices would cost. Previous to this visit I had asked them what would be “worst case scenario” as to how expensive this might become, and was told then I might have to pay 9000 Nkr (US $ 1349).
The last year, I’ve been trying to figure out what to do, and how to pay for keeping my mole, as well as trying to concentrate on seeing my tooth whole and well. As I’m not quite there yet where I manage to visualize big changes in my “bodily reality” I didn’t expect everything to be fine and dandy in there either. However, the dentist did find out that the nerve to the tooth had died, so repairing would be painless (which was good news as I dislike the needles most of all). She also gave my price on dealing with my tooth: 1000 kroner for pulling it or 3000 for a root-canal.
Wow! I thought. No question there, fix the tooth and be happy! The price was 1/3 of what I had been told was worst case scenario. In addition I’d only have to pay half of that now.
The whole hour the dentist worked in my mouth, I kept thinking how grateful I was, that she was in such a good mood, and that she was so good at her job. How wonderful it is that someone uses many, many years of their life to learn and train to be able to help me. So I just lay in the chair, breathed deeply and enjoyed the sun shining through the window warming my face, and the dentist doing her job lovingly.
When she was finished and it was my turn to pay, I also got 10% off, without any explanation. (it was 10% off the price, not the tooth!)
So of course this was a very lovely visit to the dentist, indeed.

This was today’s biggest reason to choose an attitude of gratitude.

However….. I also had my moments of frustration that evolved around my 10 year old bunching-ball of a daughter, who lost her keys to our home twice in 7 hours today. When I got home, I got her new keys and tied them to her jacket, so now she can’t lose them. (and thats final!!!)

I wonder how I can change my view of her, to help her the most (and release my frustration). I suspect there is a great lesson to be learned for me here, much more than there is for her.

In every other way, a most joyful day working with my team at school, and enjoying the winter sunshine.