Wow, that hurts! That’s what I thought every time. But then I would suffer through it.
I had an old pair of glasses that I kept in my truck for emergencies since I am supposed to wear glasses when I drive. At some point in the past, I broke one of those pieces off that lets the glasses rest comfortably on the top of your nose. I have no idea what the piece is called, but when it’s not there, what you have left is a sharp piece of metal or plastic or something that hurts to a ridiculous degree. And the pain gets worse the longer you wear the glasses.
For years, literally, I’ve thought about checking to see if the glasses could be fixed. And since I bought them at one of those “big box” stores, I knew that they had pretty good customer service.
I kept meaning to do it – just to go in and ask the question – during one of my million trips to the store. But I never did.
Instead, I would suffer with the pain. Over and over and over and over. Every time that I had to use those glasses, it hurt. And every time, I would think, “Why don’t I at least go ask if something can be done about this?” But I never did.
In addition to the suffering, I finally broke down. But instead of breaking down and taking the glasses in to see if they could be fixed, I just bought some new ones.
As I picked up the new glasses that I ordered, I thought, “Hey, while I’m here, I’m going to check to see if these old ones can be fixed.” I sort of half hoped that the guy behind the counter would say, “Nope, no way,” and that would make me feel better about having suffered in silence then spent more money on new ones.
Instead, he said, “Sure! Give me just a minute!”
And in about a minute, maybe two, they were as good as new.
Good gosh, was I stupid for driving around with painful glasses for all those years – and for buying new ones when I could have just had the old ones fixed for much less money.
If you have children, and you’ve lived through a divorce or child custody case, you have an order that hopefully has a perfect set of rules for you and your children to live by. But there’s a chance that you have parts of the order that are causing you pain. Every time you “use” that part of the order, something is poking you. But instead of asking if it can be fixed, you keep suffering with it.
My glasses situation and solution reminded me of how important it is to at least ask if something can be fixed. Chances are that nothing can be done, but there’s always a chance that it can! And fixing it will make life much less painful.
Things change in Family Law. Even if your order was done because that’s the way things had to be when your case was finalized, there is a chance that something has changed that would give you a much more pleasant life now.
Sometimes the legislature passes a new law. Sometimes the Texas Supreme Court has made a decision that creates a new interpretation of an old law. And sometimes, it’s as simple as the Judge in your court has changed, due to retirement or new election cycle.
If you never ask, you’re never going to know.
And you don’t want to be like me and go for years with something painful that could easily be fixed if you just ask about a solution.
If the orders you have are not working for you. Ask an attorney if there’s any way that things can change. And your life may end up being much happier.
Don’t suffer in silence.
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