Instant Karma

For four years I have wanted headboards on the beds at our lake cabin. We bought the place furnished, but the beds are on metal frames only, no headboards. Off and on I've searched garage sales, estate sales, used and new furniture stores, to no avail. I either could find nothing I liked or the price was too steep to rationalize for a piece of furniture at a rustic lake house. The past few weeks I began taking my quest a little more seriously because my writing group will be using the cabin for quarterly retreats. I hit all the same furniture haunts and at a garage sale I thought I hit the jackpot. The woman selling her wares assured me her daughter would bring a Queen-size sleigh bed to the sale the next day. The price was not too high, but the color was wrong. It was dark wood and I really wanted light wood or white, but I've long lived by the adage, "Beggars, can't be choosers." I left my name and phone number and promised to return the following day with cash in hand. The timing was great, as my husband and I were going to the cabin and could install the new bed before the writing retreat.

I returned for "my" new bed, only to discover the proprietor of the garage sale had not honored her promise and sold the bed to the first person waving cash at her. I was disappointed and mad, I had negative thoughts about the woman that involved wishing bad karma upon her! My Zen-like husband made his usual, "It wasn't meant to be" comment.

The next day, en route to the lake sans a headboard my husband spied another garage sale and asked if I'd like to stop. "Sure," I replied unenthusiastically, knowing it would be an exercise in futility, as most garage sales are. But what did I see as we approached the sale? A white queen-size headboard. I jumped out of the car with more than a little excitement, and inquired the price. "Two dollars," was the reply. Two dollars!?! On what planet can you buy a queen-size headboard for two dollars? Even if it was old, cheaply made, and peeling paint, I would have paid much, much more. the headboard just fit in the back of my SUV and we continued on our way to the Lake, believing a little more in Karma.