In my efforts to always find joy in the journey of life, particularly motherhood, I find that the journey sometimes takes us places we don’t always want to go. This week the journey took me to the dentist’s chair for a root canal. This is typically not a place most people – with the exception of the dentist – find joy. In my attempts to to find the brighter side of life, here are a few reasons why I think getting a root canal is easier than real life.

1)      I get some peace and quiet. It takes almost 30 minutes to drive to the dentist from my house, so in a roundtrip drive (sans kiddos) I get almost an hour of quiet drive time. No one complains about what seat they’ll sit in or not sit in. No one pokes anyone in the eye or behaves in a way to “get the eye” from me. It gives me time to call a friend, listen to good tunes, or dare I say…enjoy the silence.

2)      I can watch a movie without interuptions. One of the perks of our dentist is that each room has a large TV screen with your choice of DVDs to watch to help distract you during your cleaning or filling. Sure there’s drilling and numbing, but no one stands in front of the wide-screen television and sings nursery songs at the top of her lungs or asks, “What’s happening now? Why are they doing that? Why was that funny?”

3)      I don’t have to answer any questions. Since my mouth is literally jammed open wide and then filled with every metal object in a 20-mile radius, I am unable to speak. On a daily basis at home I field endless questions that are fired at me faster and with more force than a pitching machine delivers baseballs to teenage boys at the batting cages. But not so in a dentist’s chair. I didn’t have anyone ask me to find their glasses, homework, half-chewed gum, or their lucky underwear. It was quiet (except for the endless drilling) and peaceful (except for the wincing in pain).

Question: When was the last time you had find joy in a less than joyous experience?